


The Little Water Elf

by KeelaFairie



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Little Mermaid AU, Novella, Rayla is a mermaid, Rayla is a water elf, maybe not idk, not much is confirmed about elves so imma say that ocean/water elves are merfolk, people may die, rly short chapters, sry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 21:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 30,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16127354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeelaFairie/pseuds/KeelaFairie
Summary: Rayla is a water elf, stuck in the depths and unable to join either human nor elves on the surface. The war isn't real to her, and though she grew up hearing the horror stories of humans, she found herself fascinated. Then, one day, she makes the mistake of saving a human prince, and a human sorcerer makes her an offer that she finds impossible to refuse.[ a Little Mermaid AU ]





	1. Across the Rift

**Author's Note:**

> So if you know anything about me, you should know that I'm obsessed with all things related to the ocean. Mermaids, niads, fish, etc. I actually plan on majoring in marine biology in college. So of course, when I heard about ocean elves, the one thing I could think of was "ARE THEY MERMAIDS", and thus, this was born. Enjoy.
> 
> Also, please note that I wrote this all in small clips today, and never got around to editing it, please excuse any typos.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 They were six beautiful children; but the youngest was the prettiest of them all; her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose-leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the others, she had no feet, and her body ended in a fish’s tail. 」

**The water seemed brighter in the Xadia side of the sea,** with kingdoms near the surface, so close to the shore that there were even several coral-stone buildings peaking out above the waves, with glass roofs to let in the bright sunlight. Reefs of rare and magical fish filled the waters with bioluminescent lights throughout the nights so that the cities were never dark, and any creature present was always friendly and bursting with curiosity. The waters were warmed by the magic the ocean elves possessed, and all throughout the year. Even when the surface became laced with frozen snowflakes and ice began weaving into the sea foam, flowers continued to bloom below the wave break. Endless mixtures of colorful coral gardens filled the yards of each merperson.

It was paradise, the thought of leaving as foolish a thought anyone could ever have.

It was forbidden to cross the border to the human side. Rayla didn't care.

Fishing boats were commonly found on that side of the rift, and a giant trench marked the boundary that cut off the ocean's elf kingdom. Rough sharks were said to roam those waters, and magic had long been stolen from its vaste emptiness, the only fish were large and dangerous, incapable of being domesticated, shipwrecks littered the floor, almost as common as the reefs within the merfolk cities. Each rotting hull was filled with weapons and rusting objects meant to kill her people. The forbidden seas held an air of danger, of risk. For someone who couldn't leave the safety of the sea, and craved adventure, it was an endless joyride.

Her kingdom was peaceful, and even if full-out war broke out on the surface, the "merfolk", as they referred to themselves, could always journey to the deep, away from any harm and violence.

That's what drove her to constantly cross the rift.

The water here was cold, and the surface seemed so far away. Rayla kept her small, empty, sea-silk woven bag clutched close to her chest, her eyes scanning the sea floor for anything of interest. She passed a small, dying reef, and found herself face-to-face with the largest human ship she'd ever seen. Rayla's eyes widened at the sight. The hull was caved in, large splintering chasms easily visible through the clear, silent water.

A small grin stretched across the mer-girl's face, and, without another thought, she dashed out downwards, to where the boat sat in a half buried state.

She entered the wrecked boat quite easily, her eyes gleaming as she made her way around broken furniture and rusting coins as she searched for anything to add to her collection.

Rayla moved a broken mirror to the side, barely looking twice at the reflection of her sea foam-white hair and coral colored eyes. Behind it was a glimmering box, shut and locked.

Humans had an obsession with locking their treasures away, it was quite annoying.

She stowed the box away in her bag, proceeding to search for the small key that would unlock whatever it was that happened to be in the miniature treasure chest.

It was in the next room that she found the first skeleton.

Rayla nearly let out a scream at the sight, and instead forced the repulsion of seeing the bones of a human down, and started rummaging through the pockets of the tattered clothing that still clung to the corpse.

Her clothing was extraordinarily fancy, gems and gold sewn into the hem of her dress that was slowly becoming covered in holes and tears.

Rayla's hand gripped a short, thin rod of metal, and she smiled in success.

Gripping her newly found key, she took the box and fit the piece of metal into the keyhole. It opened with a click and Rayla excitedly pried the box open.

A burst of air flew out, leaving Rayla startled at the revelation. It had been well-made enough to keep any water out, even after several years.

What confused her was the the only thing inside was a golden ring, with two uneven lines preventing it from connecting.

Biting her lip, she stuck the strange object in her bag just as the dim light seeping into the shipwreck faded.

Rayla froze, her eyes shooting to look out of the broken hull. She quickly left the ship, her eyes peering upwards at the shape slowly making its way across the surface.

Eh, she hadn't had enough adventure for the day.

Rayla made her way to the surface.  
  
  


**• • •**  
  
  


Callum honestly couldn't understand why they were suddenly going to the Atlantis lodge, not when the last time they went had ended in tragedy. Not when the last time they went, mom had been with them. Ezran was nowhere in sight, no doubt raiding the kitchens and gobbling up any jelly tart he could find before they reached shore either that night or tomorrow morning.

The sun had begun setting a while ago, and the last bits of sun were starting to sink beneath the horizon as dark clouds moved dangerously near. The air seemed to hold the scent of cold rain, drawing closer and closer, just like it had on that one day.

He sighed, turning to lean his back on the ship's railing as he opened his sketchbook. His pencil rested on the blank page, and he found himself stumped on what exactly to draw. Groaning, the boy slumped down into a sitting position, his eyes drifting to the small opening in the railing, the one meant to let out any water that might've fallen onto the deck. The water was a light sea-foam green, a much bright color than the murky color further west into the human territory.

Something flashed in the water, and Callum quickly shifted to look over the side. The faint figure of... a fish? A human?

His boredom was now causing hallucinations.

Great.

Without any other ideas, he decided to draw just what he saw. A fish-girl.

His pencil moved across the paper in similar, rhythmic motions. He was lost in the drawing, sketching various versions of people with fish-tails. He believed they were called merfolk in old human legends, but he also knew that water elves resembled them greatly.

Before he knew it, the sun set, and the candlelight began flickering as raindrops started to fall, the drops leaving small, intricate patterns on his notebook.  
  
  


**•  •  •**  
  
  


Rayla was fascinated. Her eyes were fixed on the one human boy's book as he drew. In her city, most things were either enchanted to resist water or simply carved into stone. Drawing would be a very complicated pastime, if anyone even wanted to waste the resources on pictures that could simply be imported and enchanted from the land above.

When the storm first hit, Rayla dove back into the water, shocked by how cold it felt after staying in the warm dryness of the surface. Looking down at her hands, she was surprised to see that the faint, almost unnoticeable scales on her hands had grown prominent and dry, several of them flaking off into the water around her.

So that's what happened when you stayed above water for too long.

She dismissed the gentle pain in her hands to the back of her mind, slowly letting herself fall back to the bottom of the sea floor.

Rayla simply floated there, realizing with a sudden embarrassment that she had to be miles away from where she'd first encountered the shipwreck, and even if she left for the border right at that moment she wouldn't cross back into elfin territory until early morning, possibly sunrise. She was positive she'd be getting an earful from Runaan.

A sudden crash of thunder sounded from overhead, the sound shooting through the water and filling Rayla's entire body with dread. Her heart-rate quickened, and Rayla could only pray that what happened wasn't what she thought had happened.

She waited for a few minutes. Judging from the steady slope of sand, the shore was only a few miles away at this point. If they were almost there—

Rayla spotted a glowing red, and several smaller ships floating away from the larger boat. What made her move — what made her risk being spotted by _humans_ of all people — was the small shape that fell into the water.

The mermaid wasted no time in rising to the surface and griping the quickly sinking figure in her arms. By the time she made it into the air, the waves were so large and violent and the rain so heavy that she could no longer see the human ships.

With no other solution in mind, she began the swim to the human-claimed shore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> small editing note- I'm beginning to go through certain chapters and editing in details and descriptions to try and extend the length of the story. There won't be any major changes, just an extra hundred words or so, adding on to chapters I tried to rush through.
> 
> _____
> 
> another note several weeks after the last one- I made a playlist on YouTube with several songs I listened to religiously while writing this :D  
> Here’s the link- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9O4ncZevU3iI2ac5Uh5J-DvLeX_tOiIx


	2. Where the Sky meets the Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 The sun rose up red and glowing from the water, and its beams brought back the hue of health to the prince's cheeks; but his eyes remained closed. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note- I do use an old gaelic song in this chapter, to take the place of a siren's song. I put the translation at the end if anyone's interested.
> 
> Also, here's a link to the song if anyone wishes to listen to it, it's a beautiful song, and I thought it was fitting since it was in an old Scottish language, and Rayla has the accent  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9FBq76YLUU

**The boy hadn't woken up by the time Rayla reached the shore.** It was surprisingly hard to swim above water, especially while carrying a human boy, who's body was weighed down and not nearly as easy to float as hers.

The sun had begun rising by the time she first touched dry land, and the soft, warm sands under her skin felt like heaven. It was as if someone had replaced the rocks they'd commonly sunbathed on in the Xadian seas with warm pillows. Rayla found herself wishing she were able to just lay there all day.

But she had more important matters to attend to.

The boy was barely breathing, and Rayla was panicking.

"Oh, stars above, please don't die," she whispered.

Her small bag cut into her side, and so she moved it back to the waterline in order to gain more mobility.

With the silence surrounding them, and the threat and darkness of danger finally gone, it was only then when she managed to really look at him.

His hair was a dark brunet, and his skin pale and clear. The boys eyes were a green that resembled the forest that rested past the beach, and-

Oh lord Poseidon, his eyes were opening.

Or, in a more accurate description, they had fluttered open for a split second before resting closed again. He was delirious, tired, and recovering from a near-death experience.

Still, he was beautiful.

Despite her better judgment, she found herself singing. It was an old lullaby, one that several merfolk knew like the back of their hands. It was a simple melody, in a language that wasn't commonly used on either side of the border.

" _Ho, mo nigh'n dubh_  
_He, mo nigh'n dubh_  
_Mo nighean dubh_  
_'S tu mo chuachag._

 _Caidil a luaidh_  
_Fo chobhair nan stuadh_  
_Air bodha na suain_  
_'S do bhruadar 's a' cheòban..._ "

Her song was cut off suddenly when she heard the distinct shouts of humans.

The boy groaned, an arm flying up to rub his eyes.

Rayla began her quick crawl back into the safety of the water, as soon as there was enough room she darted into a quick sprint away from the beach. The water was too clear here, she'd be seen.

There was a conveniently placed rock set amongst the shallow waves, and so she pulled herself onto the back of it, her heart rate moving faster than the quickest dolphin as she tried to make her body as small as possible.

Despite the distance, she could hear every word the humans said.

**• • •**

Callum woke up in a daze, his head pounding and the taste of salt water filling his mouth. His lungs burned and it took every bit of his willpower to not roll over and vomit right then and there.

A voice.

There was a voice, and a girl.

"Callum!" a terrified voice called out.

The memories came rushing back to him as a small figure slammed into his chest.

"Ezran, you're okay!"

"You're an idiot, Callum! I could've escaped on my own, and then you went and fell into the water after hitting your head—"

Huh. So that's why his head hurt so much.

"C'mon, Ez, do you really think I'd risk losing my little brother? It's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Ezran, please give your brother some space, we don't know how badly he's hurt."

At that, Callum pulled himself to his feet.

He wouldn't have survived without-

"There was a girl," he said, staring out longingly to the sea, his feet touching the edge of the waves that lapped at the sand.

"A girl?" Ezran asked.

"She- she was singing," he continued, "she—"

His foot brushed up against something, and he crouched down to pick up a small bag that was being tugged at by the waves.

There was something hard and solid inside, and when he took it out he froze.

In the bag was a tiara.

His mothers tiara.

"Callum, lets go inside and get you into some warm clothes," Harrow began, placing a gentle arm on his step-son's shoulder. "We can worry about this situation later."

Callum only found himself nodding.

A sick sensation filled his stomach, something wasn't adding up, and he knew that whatever it was would either lead to a fairytale ending, or a horrifying tragedy. He could only hope it wasn't the latter.

**•  •  •**

As soon as the sound of the humans' voices faded away, Rayla dived into the water and swam as quickly and deeply as she could, not resting until she had to be at least two miles away from shore, where she let her body collapse into the painfully cold sand. She found that she was already missing the warm sensation of dry sand.

She heaved in what felt like heavy, lithesome breaths of water, watching the air bubbles escape her lungs that were rarely used, and letting her gills fill with water that she hadn't inhaled since the night before. Rayla was surprised at how suddenly _wrong_ it all felt.

She peered up at the dim light filtering in from the surface, and pushed her thin body off of the sea floor, propelling her tail upwards in a series of strong, calculated kicks.

Her head burst through the surface, and the warm air above hit her skin in a single, freeing moment. She let her tail rise up, and soon the entire top of her body lay at the surface, the sun kissing her skin with its warmth.

For a water elf, the sun was so foreign. If anything, the moon was the closest primal source to them, other than the ocean. Without the moon, there would be no tides, no waves, and the sea she lived in would be very, _very_ different from what she knew. Even the stars were connected with the sea. In the middle of the night, she heard stories about them, of the constellations. Of Aquarius the water bearer, or  the two fish Pisces. The moon, stars, and ocean were connected in some way. The sun, however, was almost as foreign as the land.

She found herself addicted to its warmth.

Runaan would be waiting for her return though, she knew. Along with the scolding, and possibility of him discovering just where she had gone. It was a disaster no matter how she looked at it.

Rayla released her poised balance at the surface of the sea, letting her body fall back into the watery depths of endless water.

Every moment she was in the sunlight, she only longed for more. She shouldn't. She was a mermaid, a child of the sea, and mermaids didn't belong if land. She needed to stop thinking of the warmth, of how beautiful that one human looked, at how he'd seemed entranced by her song.

The voices of ocean elves were magic, she knew that. While other elves specialized in assassination, or magic weapons, the merfolk had magic laced in their songs. Him acknowledging her music was only natural.

Still, she found herself singing to herself as she sunk to the endless depths, and made her way to the border that separated her from the dangerous world above. The world she will never know.

" _Caidil a ghraidh_  
_O caidil mu thràth_  
_Is t'athair air bhàigh_  
_Is fadal mo phòig air._

 _Eala rid' thaobh_  
_Is roin os do chionn_  
_Lacha Mhoire 's a' chaol_  
_'S cha'n fhaobar bhrònag._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of the song-
> 
> Title: Crònan An Maighdinn/The Mermaid's Croon
> 
> Sleep beneath  
> The foam o' the waves  
> On reefs of sleep  
> Dreaming in dew mist.
> 
> Thy seabed  
> The seals o'er head  
> From reivers dread  
> Securely guarding
> 
> While I croon,  
> White swan of the moon,  
> Wild duck of the sound,  
> By thee are resting.


	3. Back Past the Border

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Here she sat and gazed at the young prince, who thought he was completely alone in the bright moonlight. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took a while to post this! I wrote the other two on the weekend, but I’ve had school and work all week so I’ve only been able to write a few short clips in my free time. I try to have at least 1,000 words in each chapter, so I know they’re a bit short, but hopefully with this system I can update as often as possible. Tbh this feels like a bit of a filler chapter, but it’s better than nothing!

**The swim back to the Xadian side was surprisingly long,** and it was almost noon by the time she made it back to her city. The waters were crystal clear and bright here, with fresh, lively coral forming several small domes. Countless merfolk swam in and out through windows and doorways as they pleased. Multiple elves greeted the young mergirl, and she cheerfully replied — as casually as she could possibly muster.

They didn't need to know she'd been on the human side of the sea all morning.

She finally reached the building she lived in — a wide, castle-like school meant to teach young ocean elves magic and siren songs. Her legal guardian, Runaan, was one of the head teachers there, and one of the only merfolk in the city, along with four other elites, who had actual combat experience. There had once been more, her two parents, but they had been killed by humans long before she could remember.

So, when she snuck skillfully in through her open window, she was not expecting Runaan to be waiting by the doorway.

"Care to explain why you've been missing since yesterday afternoon?"

Well, _shellfish_. She was as dead as sashimi.

"Runaan!" Rayla squeaked, "What are you doing here? Don't you have classes to teach?"

"Morning classes ended an hour ago," he replied, "classes that you conveniently failed to show up to."

"Oh, we're those today?" she asked, a hand reaching up and absentmindedly playing with the sole braid in her hair.

"They're every day."

"Right..."

Runaan sighed, dragging a hand down his face as he let the fluke of his tail rest on the smooth, weathered away rock that was her floor.

"Rayla, did you go to the human side again?"

She froze, "Absolutely not."

"Telling lies, again?"

"Nope! Didn't do it, you can't prove anything."

"Rayla," Runaan snapped, and that silenced the young girl.

"Do you realize the severity of trouble you'd be in if ever caught?"

"That's why you don't get caught!"

Runaan groaned, letting his head fall back and bang against the coral wall.

"You're ridiculous."

"Your point?"

Runaan bit his lip, and in one swift flick of his tail he was upright, floating in front of the mergirl at his full height.

"You're grounded until further notice. You are not to leave this room, and your lessons will be sent here, along with your food."

"Wha—"

"We'll speak more of this matter later."  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


Rayla didn't stay in her room.

Maybe half an hour after Runaan left, she realized exactly how hungry she had become. The swim from her city to the border and beyond was not a short one, and her tail was sore, like it always was after her occasional voyage.

She hadn't eaten anything but the occasional seaweed chip since lunch yesterday.

She burrowed herself into her bed, groaning at the thought of having to wait for her food to arrive. Rayla absentmindedly reached for her sea-silk bag to examine her finds more closely, only to realize with a jolt that it was nowhere to be found.

Oh, _sea-stars_ _and cuddlefish_ , she'd left it at the beach. With _humans_.

Rayla silently cursed herself.

Well, there was nothing to do here. Except, of course, re-read her few books that had been read so much that they'd lay open stilly without any assistance on any page chosen. She was certain that, if she tried, she could recite almost every page by memory.

She was _not_ going to sit and wait for who knows how long.

And so, Rayla pushed herself up from her sandy bed, and swam through her window.

It was surprisingly easy for her to sneak out, possibly because Runaan thought she wouldn't _dare_ defy his direct orders.

His mistake.

She expertly made her way through seaweed gardens and past alleyways — and conveniently through a bakery, leaving a simple gold doubloon in place of a sashimi roll — exiting the city without running into a soul. As soon as she passed the last piece of coral, she sprinted through the water as fast as her tail could take her. It wasn't until she reached the ocean's rift that she realized exactly where her body was leading her.

The breach was a void of darkness as she passed above the nothingness.

Rayla continued her trek through the empty, lifeless waters, every now and then passing a stray fish. At one point she thought she saw a shark in the distance, but she probably imagined it. A shark would have to be insane to live in the middle of nowhere, and it's much easier to live by a city where the friendly merfolk were constantly giving hand-outs of leftover fish.

It was a weird feeling, seeing the sandy bottom slowly rising beneath her body, at multiple points she had to force herself to swim several feet higher due to her tail scraping against the undisturbed sand.

She surfaced behind a large rock, peeking around it to the beach where she'd dragged the prince ashore. There was a large castle maybe a mile down the beach, and with no other ideas on where anything interesting may be, she swam in that direction.

It was a large, grande palace, one that she didn't think would be able to fit anywhere on a reef. The towers would be poking up and out of the surf. The only palace in the sea was where the Ocean Elf king — Triton — lived in the old capital far out at sea. It was the safest city, but also far too deep and off the coast to contact the surface easily. Currently the leaders of the ocean realm were working on a system of magic to transfer messages between land elves and the sea king.

She surfaced again behind a cluster of rocks, the palace was even larger and more breathtaking up close. Its walls were made of sandstone and a few land-rocks that she hadn't seen before. It rested on a cliff, with a long, winding walkway wrapping around and to the beach. If she recalled correctly, it was called a "staircase".

One of the large double-doors flew open and her heart seemed to stop right then and there. Two humans stepped out, the smaller one holding what she recognized as a glow-toad. She'd seen humans tossing them into the water to attract large fish.

Yet another reason to fear humans, they were ruthless killers of innocent creatures.

But this small human wasn't hurting the glow toad, and the creature was content in his arms.

The other human was the boy from before, the one she saved. And at that moment, he was all she could see. His entire being was perfect, even as he hastily followed the younger human down the winding stairs.

To the beach. Where she hid just off the sand.

Oh heck. She dived back into the safety in the water, trying to ignore the painfully loud sound she made, and swam until she felt the soft confides of a nearby kelp forest engulf her.

She sunk to the bottom, letting herself rest on the sand.

Stars below, what had gotten into her? Willingly heading straight to a human castle, that was populated with _humans_?

Oh wait, on no, oh _please_ no.

She was in love, wasn't she?

 


	4. Dark Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lord Voldemort appears.
> 
> 「⠀ "But if you take my voice," said the little mermaid, "what will be left to me?"
> 
> ⠀ "Your lovely form," the witch told her, "your gliding movements, and your eloquent eyes. With these, you can easily enchant a human heart. Well, have you lost your courage? Stick out your little tongue, and I shall cut if off. I'll have my price, and you shall have the potent draught."
> 
> ⠀ "Go ahead," said the little mermaid. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHH I’M SO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER TO UPDATE. I have been trying to write a new chapter for this, but writer’s block is a bish and it never turned out quite right. I was originally going to have a chapter dedicated to the other elves finding out Rayla’s in love, but I found that this was easier to write. I’m sorry, I might eventually write that chapter and put it before this one, but for now pls take this instead.

**The sky was clear and blue,** rays of sun creating rainbows of light through the water. Rayla darted to and fro on her way to the border, hiding behind rocks and patches of seaweed as she made her way out of the city.

 

She could already hear Runaan's angry greeting for when she returned.

 

_"Why weren't you at elf practice?"_

 

The thought made her giggle.

 

As she exited the city, she began the swim down to the rift, crossing the deep trench without a second thought.

 

The thought of seeing him again made her giddy with joy. A human prince, she was an idiot.

 

But why did he have to be so perfect?

 

When the sea floor began its slope upwards she began looking for her usual rock, one that was situated a few hundred feet from the shore. She pulled herself from the water, peering over the rock only to find — with disappointment — that there were no humans playing around in the sand.

 

Her joyous mood diminished, just the slightest bit. Maybe they would appear later?

 

Too late she noticed the shadow slowly approaching through the water. A human seemed to shimmer into existence on the shore, looking directly at her.

 

Without a second thought, she dived back into the water, adrenaline suddenly very prominent in her veins. Too soon the energy began to fade. Her breath caught in her throat, and she found that her gills were unable to filter in any water.

 

Her vision blurred, and the last thing she remembered was a thin, wire net wrapping around her tail before everything went dark.

 

 

 

 

 

•••

 

 

 

 

When Rayla awoke next, the air around her was thick and cold. Her shoulders hurt from some kind of binding, and her wrists stung from where they were tied up, out of the water on some kind of metal circle drilled into the stone floor.

 

Her vision was blurry, and it took several moments for Rayla to realize it was because of the absence of water to keep her eyes damp and clear.

 

Oh _please_ no. She'd been captured by a human. A human. And now she was probably going to be used as a subject for one of their cruel and evil "dark magic" endeavors. She wanted to cry, but held back her tears. They only held more magic, and there was no way she was going to bless the human who'd captured her with something as magical as a mermaid's tear.

 

After a quick scan of what she could see from her bound position — torso pulled up and out of the water, a grainy edge of stone cutting into her stomach where the water ended — and saw that no human was in the room. It appeared to be one of the towers of the seaside castle, and a thin layer of dust seemed to cover everything. There were shelves lining the walls, and a desk in a corner. It took her a minute to realize that the shelves were lined with dead creatures of magic, mostly aquatic ones.

 

It was the only thing in the tower, the walls stretching far above her and very few windows lined the dark stone.

 

Her observations were cut short when she heard a large squeal of what must've been an old door opening. It slammed shut, and she flinched, panic filling her body as she began desperately struggling against the rope that kept her out of the water and unable to flea. Could she even leave? She knew the water she was in had to be salt water due to the texture and scent, so it had to be connected to the ocean, possibly through an underwater cave.

 

"Struggling is pointless, the ropes are enchanted."

 

She froze, her eyes focusing on the blurred shape of dark shoes on front of her. Rayla pulled as far away as she could when the human knelt down.

 

"Such a beautiful creature," he spoke, a hand reaching out and gripping her chin. She flinched at the touch.

 

"It really is a shame that you're an elf."

 

Rayla simply glared at him as he dropped his hand.

 

"I noticed you watching the princes on the beach yesterday, I never imagined the ocean elf would be so young. Though I do suppose that the elven race is bent on killing at a very young age."

 

That one statement pissed Rayla off, "We're not barbarians!"

 

"Ah! So the elf speaks!" the man spoke, standing, "And I must say, you really do not look like a killer. Give you some proper clothing and you could pass off as something as harmless as a mermaid from the old fairy tales, not some elven prostitute."

 

The say he said that was so degrading, though Rayla had no idea what _"prostitute"_ meant, but she was suddenly very aware of the fact that she — like most other merfolk — preferred not wearing any clothing, as it often got caught on coral and dragged them down.

 

"Ah, but you were simply watching for all the days you spent. Even the day when the princes weren't on the beach, you waited," he continued, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say the little Ocean Elf was in love."

 

Rayla simply looked down, trying to ignore the way her face heated at that comment.

 

"Well then, it would appear I was correct. The little elf is in love with the step-prince."

 

The bonds on her wrists really, _really_ hurt.

 

"Well then, elf, I have a proposition," he said, almost as if he was reading her mind, "and first I must cut the bonds. I do ask that you won't leave."

 

Pft, _as if._

 

With the snap of his fingers, the rope binding her went limp, and Rayla fell back into the water. She looked at her wrists, rubbed raw from the harsh bonds, scales peeling off and bleeding, then at the sorcerer, as if in disbelief.

 

She dove underwater, a single flick of her fin propelling her into the tunnel that branched off from the pool.

 

A second later she was met with a metal grate. She grabbed the bars, desperately pushing and pulling at the metal. It was clear that she was firmly shut in.

 

With no other option, she begrudgingly returned to the small pool, being sure to staying as far from the human as possible.

 

"Are you ready to listen to my deal?"

 

It took several seconds for Rayla to realize he was waiting for a reply.

 

She sighed, letting her head rest on the stone wall behind her, "Yes."

 

"Well then, it's only natural we introduce ourselves. I am known as Lord Viren, little elf. It will do you well to remember that name."

 

"They call me Rayla, Lord," she spoke softly, scared to remain silent. The human could easily keep her contained here for who knows how long. She wasn't fond of that idea.

 

"Well, Rayla, I have a proposition," he began, and Rayla had a really, really bad feeling that she wasn't going to enjoy the days to come one bit, "I can give you the legs and appearance you require to pass as human."

 

If the stunned silence was any indication, Rayla was already to intrigued to refuse.

 

"Can... _can you do that?_ "

 

"Of course, there will have to be a payment. And your voice would immediately give away what exactly you are. I can give you legs, in exchange for your voice."

 

"But, without my voice, how can I—"

 

"Do you really think I'd be stupid enough to let an Ocean Elf near the prince with their voice intact? Your voice is your greatest weapon. Without it, you pose no threat to the prince."

 

Rayla dunk deeper into the water. That's how it had to be, huh?

 

"Now, this type of spell is quite advanced, and there will have to be a set of limits," Viren began his way back to the dusty work table, clearing a space and collecting various dead creatures.

 

 _Monster,_ Rayla thought.

 

"I can give you until the step-prince falls in love with another. Until he kisses one other than you. However, if you manage to kiss him first — not just any kiss, a _'true love's kiss'_ — you will stay human forever. But if not, and he kisses another, the following morning you will fade to sea foam. A fitting fate for an ocean elf, don't you think?"

 

"So I just have to get him to fall in love and kiss me?"

 

"Correct."

 

"Then I-"

 

"Oops! I almost forgot one, small little thing," Viren set down the magical creatures he was working with and turned to face Rayla, "This is a very, _very_ high-level spell, and a very complex one. I'm afraid the only way it'll work is if you sacrifice some of you magical energy to make it so."

 

"My—" Rayla hesitated, her mind searching for whatever that could mean. Of course, she knew elves were creatures of magic, it just never crossed her mind that they could be used for _dark_ magic.

 

Just another reason to hate humans.

 

"Of course, this will quite possibly cause you pain whenever you walk. But if you were to become permanently human, none of this would be a problem."

 

He returned to the side of the tidal pool, "Have we got a deal?"

 

"Yes."

 

" _Then sing._ "


	5. The World Above

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that her fish’s tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is horrible eek. I apologize in advance.

**The last thing Rayla could remember was her voice.** She sung an old sailor's song, letting the melody drift throughout the small tower before she realized that it was no longer her singing.

 

Then, there was pain. The feeling of her very soul being ripped from her body, as if everything she'd ever known was being stolen in that moment. She felt her tail suddenly split in two, and she felt herself scream, though there was no sound.

 

And then, silence.

 

 

 

 

**•  •  •**

 

 

 

 

The castle hallway was filled with rays of morning light, the sunrise illuminating the air around Callum as he wandered around aimlessly. Ezran had decided, as soon as breakfast ended, that he was going to explore the unseen passageways of the old castle.

 

He supposed that he could always go down to the beach, like he and his brother had been doing each day since they arrived.

 

There wasn't much else to do. It was too close to the rift, so they weren't allowed to swim too far from shore, weren't allowed to explore past the rocks bordering their small beach, and weren't allowed to go exploring the forest behind the castle.

 

Callum sighed, turning to peer out one of the many open windows facing the ocean. The sun filtered down onto the beach, warming the sands as the tide retreated, leaving pools of water settling in between the crevices in rocks. In one of the pools was the outline of a small, pale girl.

 

Wait, _a girl?!_

 

Callum's eyes widened as he leaned out the window, checking twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from boredom — or sleep deprivation, that was also a possibility. But no, he could clearly see the shape of a small girl, partly buried in the sand and the waves acting as her blanket as she slept.

 

Hesitating for only a second, he sprinted down the hallway towards the staircase that led to the beach.

 

"Claudia," Callum called as he passed the older girl — who was walking by with a book in hand, "there's a girl — _get help._ "

 

Not waiting to make sure Claudia complied to the strange order — though Callum wouldn't blame the girl if she didn't — the prince made his way outside, ignoring the bite of salty wind that cut through his thin, white shirt (it was much too warm in this climate to wear a doublet).

 

The sand sunk under his steps, filling his shoes, which he promptly pulled off and threw to the side. Callum ignored the way the hems of his pants were soaked with ocean water. He found the girl quite easily. He quickly pulled off his thin blouse and wrapped it around the girl's shoulders, desperately, checking for a pulse on her neck. Wait, that was where a pulse was, right?

 

She shifted, wincing as if she were in pain. He watched her carefully, as if she might break at any second.

 

"H-hey, are you okay?"

 

The girl opened her eyes. They were a light violet, an unusual color.

 

" _Callum,_ " he heard a voice call. Claudia stopped running as she came to their side. "Oh wow, you weren't kidding. There's really a girl."

 

"Yes, _help?_ "

 

"Uhm, right!" Claudia crouched down, "Ah, er, are you okay?"

 

The girl didn't answer, she simply stared at the two humans above her, then looked down at her legs.

 

"Okay, lets just get her inside, we can ask questions later."

 

Callum nodded, pulling himself out of the wet sand and helping Claudia hoist the girl into her arms.

 

 

 

**•••**

 

 

 

 

Rayla couldn’t believe what was happening. She woke up to find, of all people, the prince himself hovering over her. They spoke quickly, in a panicked manner, asking her a few things — of which she couldn’t answer — before bringing her into the castle.

 

The human structure was even more amazing on the inside, with tall ceilings and arched walkways. Windows lined the side facing the sea, with details carved into their frames. The view over the sea was beautiful. She couldn’t believe she could actually see it.

 

The two humans brought her to a large room, with a circular tub and several stacks of cloth.

 

“Callum, go find Soren and notify the king. I’ll get her cleaned up.”

 

The prince nodded, quickly leaving and letting the door slide shut behind him.

 

Oh, he was gone. That dampened her mood a bit.

 

Then, the girl — a tall, pretty human with long dark hair — switched something on that caused the tub to start filling with water and bubbles.

 

“Here,” she said, grabbing a cloth from a shelf in the corner and replacing the shirt that the prince had wrapped around her with the towel, “are you okay? You haven’t spoken this whole time.”

 

Rayla simply rested her hand on her throat, hoping that the message was clear.

 

“You can’t speak?”

 

Rayla nodded in confirmation.

 

“Oh, well, can you write?” the girl began frantically searching the room for a quill and paper, before realizing that there was none in the bathroom, “Or, um... I’m Claudia. Maybe we can try that later.”

 

The elf smiled, nodding. Then, her eyes caught on a mirror in the far end of the room.

 

She looked human. Her hair held a faint blonde color, her ears were rounded and plain, there were no horns, and her face lacked any traditional elf markings. The dark mage really did turn her human.

 

“Here, the bath is drawn, I’ll go find some clothing for you while you get cleaned up,” Claudia said, turning off the water in the tub and running to the edge of the room, “Just call if you need anything, I’ll try to find a nurse while I’m out!”

 

Rayla watched as the girl left, before turning to look at her feet.

 

Her own feet, that was a funny thought. She couldn’t believe it. She was here, _as a human._

 

Runaan would be furious.

 

She was here, worlds away from her people and everything she’d ever known — heck, she was posing as something she’d been raised to think of as an enemy. All she could do was laugh at the thought.

 

She stood from the edge of the tub, immediately gasping as pain shot through her legs. She crumpled to the ground, closing her eyes and waiting for it to fade.

 

Only then did she realize exactly what price she’d paid for her legs.


	6. Siren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Every step she took was as the witch said it would be,  
> she felt as if she were treading upon the points of sharp knives. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just an fyi, I finally got around to making a cover and posting this book on wattpad, if anyone prefers that website/app over this one.
> 
> Also, over 800 reads?!?!?! Brb while I go sit in a corner and cry because ppl actually read the trash that I write <3

**Viren watched the elf be carried into the castle,** his palm resting on his pocket, where a small voice was clutched tightly in a clawed hand.

The die had been set, now all he had to do was wait for the right opportunity. He was good at waiting.

Besides, in the meantime he had her voice to work with. He had to find a way to extract the magic from it. Perhaps it could be taken and stored some place — like a primal stone — for later use.

An Ocean Elf's voice was powerful, he'd been unlucky enough to witness it firsthand.

Sirens were what they became known as. Sirens were the ones that had caused tragedy that one night. Their ship had sailed too close to the border during a storm, and Queen Sarai...

Yes indeed, he could do wondrous things with the voice of a siren.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Rayla looked at herself in the mirror, still too stunned to really react. That was her. It was really her. It was what she would look like if she had been born a human.

The dress she wore was extravagant, and extremely heavy. The silk skirt hung down her legs, pooling on the floor around her as a servant silently pinned the gown to her figure. There was what she learned to be a corset crushing her ribs, and the light coral color brought out the glimmer of her eyes. Pearls were beaded along the hem, and traces of blue and silver string criss-crossed along the skirt, creating intricate patterns that resembled the ocean. How the colors ended up going together, Rayla had no clue.

It was gorgeous — though extremely uncomfortable.

The corset was needlessly tight, crushing the air out of her already too-small lungs. Viren hadn't thought to expand them — ocean elves had lungs already, just get rid of the gills and trade the tail for legs and they'd be fine on land. She wished there was a way to have mentioned that to him. The fabric along the outside wasn't that bad, it was what went underneath that hurt. They'd added several layers of some kind of mesh to make the skirt bigger, and it rubbed uncomfortably against her dry skin.

Another thing Viren seemed to have conveniently forgotten, mermaids were meant to spend their entire lives in water. She'd been dry for maybe an hour and already her skin had become painfully dry. Thankfully, from what she could see, there were no scales. It appeared as if her scales had been completely replaced with soft human skin. It was weird looking at herself and not seeing the soft light-blue glow that was caused by her scales.

Everything was much heavier on land, and she was hoping she didn't have to wear the gown for long, and that it could be easily replaced with a simpler one.

Maybe that girl, Claudia, had something she could wear.

A pair of slippers were placed in front of the elf, and she carefully stepped into them. White filled her vision in a flash as the pain raced through her. She sucked in a breath, biting her lip as the soles of her feet felt as if a million tiny knives were shredding into her skin.

She pushed the image to the back of her mind.

The servant stood, stepping away after finishing the needed alterations. Earlier a nurse had been sent in to examine her for any possible injuries, only to find that she was completely healthy.

She heard two servants talking about her, they thought she was a victim of a shipwreck from the night before. Apparently there had been a storm, though Rayla hadn't been awake to witness it.

The servants left and Rayla was left alone in the room, which appeared to be a bedroom? There was a large plush object at one side of the room, and she was currently standing by what she assumed was a closet — though it was currently mostly empty.

She heard the door open, and Rayla looked in the mirror to see who it was.

Her eyes widened, and she quickly turned to face the man despite the pain that erupted in her feet.

She tried to speak, only to remember that she couldn't. He'd stolen her voice.

Viren approached the elf at a casual pace, hands folded behind his back. He stopped in front of the girl, studying her.

"It's nice to see the spell was a success," he finally said, "I've never attempted a full transformation before, so the drawbacks are quite surprising at the moment."

The was a small silence, since Rayla couldn't reply.

"Oh, that's right, you no longer have your voice," Viren abruptly continued, "I am here to bring you to dinner, and to prepare you. You will be in the presence of the royal family of Katolis. We should hurry, it would be rude to keep them waiting."

Rayla nodded, bunching up her skirt and stepping down from the platform that the maids had her stand on while they tailored the dress.

She thought she had been prepared for the pain, but when the feeling of fire entered her veins once more, she found her vision going white. It was different this time. Rayla found her legs unable to support her own weight, and she crumpled to the ground as she tried to think of anything, _anything_ but the feeling of agony that filled her being.

She shut her eyes. The elf was no longer moving, so why was the pain refusing to fade?

Then it hit her.

This was the drawback. It was the side effect of black magic stealing the essence of a primal source. It was the spell stealing the magic from within her.

Another thought crossed her mind, this was the first time Viren had said he'd done any magic like this, and that it would draw from her very being. What would happen when all of the magic was gone? Would she become just a plain human?

She had a feeling it was a lot worse.

When it finally diminished — what felt like an eternity later — she found that her body had grown surprisingly weak.

Viren simply stood there.

Heaving in an unsteady breath, Rayla pulled herself to her feet, the ache still there and quite potent, but not nearly as bad as it had been moments before.

She followed Viren out of the room and into the unknown.

 


	7. The Little Mermaid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 The prince asked her who she was,a nd where she came from, and she looked at him mildly and sorrowfully with her deep blue eyes; but she could not speak. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who just re-read The Little Mermaid searching for quotes/moments to use and is now stuck in an endless well of sorrow? That fairy tale murders my soul every time I read it. Then I tried watching Legend of the Blue Sea to cheer myself up (it's a k-drama about a mermaid, what's the worst that can happen?) only to realize it's the saddest story to ever exist.
> 
> Why do mermaid stories always seem to end in tragedy?

**The halls were deafeningly silent as the two made their way through the palace.** Every so often Rayla would stop, either to look at something she'd never seen before or because the pain had grown too great.

By the time they reached the dining hall, however, the pain had all but disappeared from her mind.

Everything was so new and exciting, and every turn seemed to hold something she'd never seen before. At one point they'd passed a servant who was placing a strange orange light into a small ornament on the wall. When Rayla excitedly pointed and gestures as if to say "What is it?" Viren simply sighed.

"It's fire, created from a large amount of heat in a single space. It gives us light and warmth, something I presume is foreign to you?"

Rayla was quickly distracted by a painting on the far side of the hall. She walked past Viren, looking up at the image. There was the figure of a girl, her long blonde hair stretching down her back as she peered out to the shore from a distant rock. The girl had the tail of a fish, but other than that held the appearance of a human.

"It's an old children's tale," Viren explained, having seen the wonder in Rayla's eyes, "Back before the days of war, there had been creatures called mermaids, who were quite similar to Ocean Elves, although they were much more like humans."

Rayla looked at him, urging the mage to continue.

"They lived in the deepest parts of the ocean, and the story goes that once, a mermaid fell in love with a human. Mermaids had no soul, and so she traded her tail for legs and ventured onto the land in hopes of the human returning her love, and granting her a soul. He ended up marrying another, and with her broken heart she fled back into the sea, drowning in the waters that were once her home."

Viren moved on, though it took Rayla several seconds to tear her eyes away from the painting.

Something about it was eerily familiar, though she wasn't sure she wanted to know why.

Viren led her down the hall turning a corner to a hall lined with tall windows, all opened to let in light from the setting sun. She turned to peer out one, met with the receding shoreline and ocean that stretched far out. It appeared that high tide would reach all the way to the steps leading down to the beach.

She averted her gaze and continued down the passageway.

They stopped before two tall double doors, of which Viren pushed open easily.

"Your highness," Viren greeted, and Rayla glanced over to see whom he was referring to.

There was an older man, with dark skin and hair that appeared to be braided into a million tiny ropes, all tied together on the back of his head. She assumed this was the king, and that it was customary on land to bow, so she did just that.

Two of the other occupants of the table were the princes she so often saw on the shore, as well as Claudia and a boy she didn't recognize.

"Come now, don't be shy," Viren said, gently coaxing her forward, "King Harrow is a kind man."

Callum, only just seeming to be aware of her presence, quickly shuffled to hide what appeared to be a book underneath the table.

He pulled himself up.

"You— you look beautiful," he said awkwardly, standing still for a second before quickly moving to pull out the chair next to him for her.

She gratefully sat down, fighting back a sigh of relief when the pain faded to its constant ache, and he returned to his seat.

They sat there looking at each other for a long, awkward moment.

"So, you're the one Callum and Claudia have been telling me about," the king suddenly said, startling the two out of their trance.

"Oh, um, yes — your highness," Callum quickly spoke, suddenly very interested in the table cloth, his face turning a subtle shade of pink.

"The poor girl was unconscious on the beach when we found her," Claudia piped in, "the poor girl was washed up from a shipwreck."

The boy who sat next to her spoke for the first time, "I wouldn't be surprised if it were those damn sirens thinking the ship was too close to the border."

The king laughed, "If that was the case, then we're lucky that her washing up on shore was all that happened."

Rayla forced a smile. Right, elves were evil here. They didn't know that it was forbidden for her people to go anywhere near the border.

"Oh, before I forget, do you perhaps know any sign language?"  Harrow asked, and it took Rayla a few moments to realize he was talking to her.

She shook her head, biting her lip.

"Well then, Callum should teach you. Then you'll be able to communicate more easily," he suggested.

"Well, what do you think? Would you be willing for me to teach you what I know?" Callum asked.

Rayla nodded excitedly, a smile spreading across her face.

She was already given opportunities to spend time with the prince! This was going to be easier than she thought.  
  


**•  •  •**  
  


When she returned to her room, a bath had been drawn in the small wash room across the room from her bed, and a nightgown was lain out on the covers.

The sun had set during dinner, and a candle had been lit by her bedside. She made her way to the bathroom, where a gas lamp was switched on and illuminating the room. She quickly rid herself of the heavy gown and let herself sink into the warm water, sinking underneath and relishing in the feeling of her skin once again becoming hydrated and clear.

She finally felt as if she were in her own skin once more, temporarily forgetting the pain that plagued her and the bargain she made.

Rayla. was going to spend time with the prince, going to get him to fall in love with her.

All she needed was time.


	8. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 But a mermaid has no tears,  
> and therefore she suffers so much more. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is a Little Mermaid AU without a bit of angst? Also, I love finding and adding in mermaid lore, and several stories say that a mermaid cries pearls. Also, I somehow can't write any story without unnecessary angst? And, in Rayla's defense, Viren didn't really seem to be willing to give her a choice in her fate.

**That night, after Rayla was sure everyone was asleep,** she quietly rose up from her bed and left the room she was meant to rest in. She found her way back to a hallway, the one with wide windows facing the ocean, and began searching for the door that led to the steps by the sea.

It was eerily silent at night, quite different from in the ocean. The only sound was the gentle crashing of waves upon the cliff side and along a far-off beach. In the ocean there was always someone awake, whether it be the village blacksmith who was like a father to her, or a baby dolphin sneaking away to play with a pod or rebellious children.

No one was awake here but her.

It wasn't too hard to find the door, as there was a small set of steps leading down to it, and the frame was covered in paintings of merfolk and sea life.

It was strange how humans romanticized the mythical creatures, yet feared the ones that did exist. The door was unlocked, so she quietly pushed it open and slipped through the crack.

The steps that led to the ocean were a slick marble surface, several areas partly weathered down to the rough sandstone underneath. She gently walked down the steps, surprised to find that the pain in her feet slowly began ebbing away the closer she got to the water.

The bottom of the staircase was covered in the gentle waves of the sea, the water just high enough so that the sand below was nothing but a inky shadow of darkness.

She lowered herself down into the final step, sinking her bare feet into the ocean, where its icy waters cooled down the pain to a point where it was all but gone. The little water elf peered out over the open seas, where nothing was visible except it's constant lull and the vast expanse of stars in the sky, and the full moon that reflected its light across the ocean.

There were so many mysteries on the human side of the breach, so many undiscovered things she hadn't even had the chance to see.

Now she would never have that chance. She would never have to hear Runaan scold her for swimming off, or be able to sing the sweet songs and spells she'd dedicated her life to learning. According to those around her, she'd had the potential to be a siren eventually, with a voice soft and melodic enough to charm even a fellow Ocean Elf. A voice that was powerful enough to convince King Triton to grant her legs in order for her to fight along the border with her fellow elves, though Runaan would most likely protest immensely.

But her voice was gone, as well as her tail.

For the first time that day, the reality of what she'd done was finally starting to sink in.

She didn't care that the tide was continuing to rise up to the step she sat on, or that the hem of her nightgown was lined with the salt of the sea.

For the first time in who knows how long, she allowed herself to mourn.

A strange lump built up in her throat, and she found it hard to breath, her eyes stung in the similar way they had back when Viren had trapped her in his tower only the night before. As if they were so dry that her vision failed, only she could see just fine. She shut her eyes, attempting to swallow and clear the lump from her throat.

She'd only felt this way once before, on the night her parents disappeared, the day they had been brutally slain by humans that and crossed the border and drawn too near to their city.

It was as if her heart was breaking into a million pieces, as if her lungs were failing her.

She was no stranger to pain after this day, but she almost longed for the ache of magic draining her, if only for a moment of relief from this sorrow.

Rayla suddenly felt a small object fall into her hand. She peeled open her eyes and looked down.

There was a small, pure white pearl.

A mermaid had no tears. Pearls were the result instead.

When humans cried, the result was the presence of salty tears dripping down their face. However, mermaids couldn't cry. Their tears would only dissolve into the ocean.

Their tears took the form of pearls, precious gems of the sea, charged with powers any dark mage would kill to obtain.

The jewel seemed to glow silently in the dark, it's form reflecting moonlight and shimmering at its closeness to the water.

She let her hand fall down her lap, the pearl rolling off, back to the sea where it belonged.

She was an idiot.

An ocean elf on land? She was born from the sea, forged from sea foam like the rest of her people. The day she died would be the day her soul disappeared back into the depths.

She was a stranger to the thought of death. Elves, especially those of the sea, lived long, fulfilling lives, distant from the troubles of land and foreign to the world of war.

Soon another pearl joined the previous one in the water, it's blue glow being added to the other in the depths of high tide. Viren had stolen her voice, so she couldn't sing to forget her troubles. She couldn't hum the familiar melodies and send herself to sleep. She couldn't with away her legs in turn of a tail.

Her thoughts went back to the story Viren had mentioned, the one of the mermaid in the painting. She wondered if she had felt the same way at one point, if the legend had ever been real.

Rayla stood, pushing the pain to the back of her heart, and began her journey back up the steps and into the castle, leaving a trail of small, luminescent pearls rolling down the stairs and into the sea.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double updates!! Woo!!


	9. Runaan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 She remembered that human beings could not live in the water, so that when he got down to her father's palace he would be quite dead. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter!!
> 
> Also, with each passing day I see people coming up with more and more theories about ocean elves and several of them are so?? freaking??? cool????? Like, I made a few posts on tumblr about my theories and someone thinks that they wouldn't have horns but instead have teeth similar to sharks (cuz horns would cause water resistance). Also, after reading that I began thinking that what if they had fins instead of horns on their heads? I was reading a book of AUs and saw that people have been calling them Oceanwater elves, which is a cool idea (though I don't want to really call the ocean elves anything until we have an official name). Every time I try to come up with one of those names I always end up with Oceanfire because of the series Waterfire.
> 
> What are some theories you guys have about ocean elves? Cuz honestly I'm addicted to reading them.

**Rayla awoke the next morning with legs that felt like lead.** She pulled herself up, her eyes drifting to the window, where the orange rays of sunrise drifted out over the open water. It had taken forever for her to drift to sleep the night before, despite the exhaustion that filled her being.

The bed that she lay on was nothing compared to the soft sand and moss that made up her own back under the sea. Her bed on land was a strange rectangular shape, as opposed to the clam-shell shape of her old one. How did humans sleep here every night? There wasn't even a warm current drifting through her room to keep her warm, all they had was a heavy cloth to drape over themselves.

She dropped her legs over the side of the soft cushion, and brought herself into a standing position. The pain filled her being once more, and she made her way to the closet where she selected a simple sea-blue dress that didn't seem to require a corset. Rayla didn't think she'd be able to handle the added pain.

The elf left her room with high hopes for the day ahead.  


•  •  •  


Callum was sitting on the beach when she found him. Staring out over the ocean with a distant expression. She stood, watching for a second, before joining him on the sand.

That startled him back into reality, "Oh, hey," he managed to say, relaxing as he saw it was only her. "I still don't know your name, that's pretty sad, isn't it?"

Rayla smiled, moving to a patch of sand flattened by the waves that clawed at the shore. She'd seen enough writing in her short time here to know that their writing was at least close enough to her own that he should understand.

Carefully she carved into the damp sand.

_R a y l a_

"Rayla?" Callum asked, and the elf nodded. "That's— that's actually really pretty."

She simply smiled not knowing what else to do. She couldn't speak, and conversation relied heavily on that.

Callum didn't seem bothered by it though.

"That reminds me, you were interested in learning sign language?"

Rayla nodded excitedly.

"Here, we can start with the basics," he began, carving letters into the sand and showing her the signs for each one.

Rayla repeated the signs, her joy slowly growing as she committed them to memory, finding a voice in a way she never thought she'd need to.  


• • •  


"Have you found her yet?"

"No, Runaan. There's no sign of her anywhere near the city."

The water in the cavern was dimly lit by a million luminescent pearls. They were currently in the council room, a rarely used cave at the heart of their city. There was never any need for it unless Runaan and his team needed to discuss the sightings of humans or a rogue shark roaming nearby waters.

This was a room designed to plan war strategies, not to plan search parties for a missing elf.

"When was she last seen?" he asked, a hand resting on his face as her tried desperately to search his memory for anything that might hint to where Rayla, the girl he saw as his own daughter, had gone.

"It's going to be fine," the only other elf in the cavern replied, a comforting hand being placed on his shoulder, "we'll find her. We'll find her if we have to traverse the entire ocean."

Runaan let his head rest on the chest of the merman opposite to him, hating himself for breaking so much in front of him.

" _Thank you, Tinker,_ " he whispered, trying so hard not to break down right then and there.

"Now, has there been anything you noticed before she disappeared," Tinker asked, "I know you had grounded her around a week before, though that did little to limit her recklessness."

Runaan's eyes widened, and with a single flick of his tail he was upright, "Oh course, that idiot," he mumbled, anxiety creeping into his being as he began pacing through the cold water, "She'd swum off to the border again, across the trench to find things for her 'collection', and was quite insistant on ignoring my warnings and—"

He paused, turning back to face Tinker with pure fear in his eyes, "Oh stars, _what if she was captured by humans._ "

The long silence that followed was enough confirmation for Runaan.

He began the swim out of the cavern and through the city, "Order an ensemble of my team. Send them out to search the human side, I'll scan the shorelines for any sign of her."

"But Runaan, what if—"

"I don't care. If you find her before she leaves," he reached a hand into a small bag fastened around his waist, pulling out a small, glass orb that resembled a pearl, he tossed it to Tinker, "use the sea glass to contact me. Until then, you'll know where I am."

"Runaan—"

The elf was gone, swimming as fast as his fins would carry him, pausing only to grab his trident from its casing in the armory. It had been so long since he'd had to wield it in battle. It's familiar weight was almost foreign in his palms.

He then swam. It didn't matter to him that the sun had long set, nor that dawn was quickly approaching. He needed to find her.

He wouldn't rest until Rayla was safe at home.

When he reached the border, he hesitated. What if he really was overreacting, and Rayla was simply gone for one of her many rebellious expeditions out. For several days. Without so much as a single sighting of her from anyone asked.

Runaan heaved in a large breath of water, swimming up to the surface far above. He broke the surface and inhaled his first breath of air in countless years. Ever since the merfolk had withdrawn from actual combat (thankfully the humans were too terrified of their magic to travel by sea anymore), instead sending off magic items and specialized weapons to the surface.

He'd thought that her parents' death would've scared her into staying under the waves, where it was safe — and it had, for a span of a few years — until she started to grow curious of things outside the sea.

As far as Runaan could see over the waves, there was nothing.

Without another thought, he dove back into the depths and crossed the border.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey, look, a wild Tinker elf has appeared.


	10. Her Voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Each night, while at the prince's palace, and when all the household were asleep, she would go and sit on the broad marble steps; for it eased her burning feet to bathe them in the cold sea-water; and then she thought of all those below in the deep. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there'll be fluff soon, but for now pls take this chapter that might be much more dramatic than needed. It's finals week, I'm writing with a loathing for tests at the front of my mind.

**Rayla returned to the beach that night,** when the water reached the steps so that she could sit and bathe her aching feet in its soothing, gentle pull. She went through the signs Callum had taught her that day, slowly memorizing the motions and trying to go through the full alphabet without hesitation.

She could hear nothing but the steady crashing of waves out at sea.

Unlike the night before, Rayla felt numb to the fact that she was stuck on land and unable to return to the world she came from. The ocean was so beautiful on land, yet it was still nothing compared to under the sea.

This was so stupid, yet she couldn't bring herself to fully regret the decision. How was that stupid, _stupid_ human boy able to make her feel so many emotions all at once. She's with him, and everything's worth it

Her head fell to the side of the staircase's railing, the longing to sing once again filling her being. But she couldn't sing, Viren had stolen her voice.

Rayla placed a hand on the railing, pulling herself to her feet. Another blast of pain filled her entire body, causing the elf to gasp, her legs giving out under her as she went crashing down into the water.

Just as quickly as the pain appeared, it dissipated as soon as her body hit the shallow water. She had to remind herself not to breath in the salty water. She decided to lay there for several seconds, shocked by the exhaustion that was now quite potent inside her.

She pulled herself up, more and more exhaustion present in her being. Returning up the stairs was a painful task, and each step felt more and more agonizing than the one before.

When she reached her room, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  


**• • •**  


The human side was cold and unforgiving. It was barren and endless, nothing but bleak sands lining the bottom of the seas with an ocean of nothing. There were the skeletons of sunken ships littered throughout the wasteland, and coral was nowhere in sight. The only fish visible were dimly colored and kept their distance.

Runaan felt no fatigue as he continued the eternal swim throughout the human-claimed seas. Still, there was no sign of Rayla. He continued his swim closer to the shoreline his anxiety growing as the sand started to slope upwards, signaling the edge of a beach. If Rayla really was with the humans, he didn't even want to know what would happen.

It became increasingly difficult to swim the closer her grew to the shore, his tail consistently brushing the sand beneath him and the water like a pane of glass above his head. He gently pressed his hand against the sandlot floor his head peeking up above the water to view the shore.

He could see dry land several meters in front of him, closer than he had ever dared to venture before. There were no humans in sight.

Runaan sighed and returned into the sea.

He soon came upon an area of shore with stone cliffs lining a beach, where a large castle filled the seaside. This was the only human settlement he'd found in his searches so far.

He followed the shore alongside the castle, his eyes sharp and desperately taking in every possible detail. A small glow caught in the corner of his eye.

He swam down the slope, picking up a small pearl from where it sat in the soft sand. It was a the tear of a merperson. He clutched it tightly slipping it into the pack at his side. He had the sickening feeling that Rayla had been here, and was closer than he ever could have imagined.

He continued his trek along the shore, pulling to a stop when he saw yet another pearl, hidden under a thin layer of sand, and slowly being tugged back into the ocean where it belonged. Runaan placed it with its counterpart, their small weight nothing under the sea's protection.

It was then that he saw the cave, a cavern of shadow amongst the ocean's usual dimness. Runaan clutched the grip of his trident tightly, and swum into the cavern.

The water here felt wrong. He was no longer filled with the ocean's familiar warm embrace. Instead, he was plagued with strange, cold, foreign pressure. It was as if the ocean behind him was pulling at his body, it's currents pushing him away from this place.

He had a very bad feeling he was about to find out what happened to Rayla.

The tunnel led to a small, round pool, the size of a closet compared to the caves his people made their homes in. The walls were a smooth, dark, freshwater stone that he'd only ever seen far upstream in rivers back when he used to actively partake in the war efforts. This wasn't natural.

Then, heard it. The soft, melodic sound of singing.

" _I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue—_ "

Runaan froze, his eyes gazing upwards towards the break of the water. That voice...

" _...look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you—_ "

_No..._

" _—in mysterious fathoms below..._ "

Runaan rose up from the water, looking into the empty room around him. It took all of his willpower not to flee right then and there.

It was bad enough that the tower was lined with the corpses of sea animals who survived from the ocean's magic, but in the center of it all...

 _Oh stars_ , what had that idiot elf done?

On a single pedestal in the center of the room, gently arranged on a small pillow, was a glowing green orb, clutched in a single clawed hand.

Rayla's voice emanated from within it, switching from song to song. From lullabies to sailors tunes, to simple senseless humming.

It was her voice.

_It was Rayla's voice._

Runaan began to reach out to the pedestal, pausing only when the sound of footsteps echoed from the other side of a wooden door at the far end of the room.

Runaan turned, swimming as fast as he could through the tunnel and out to the sea, stopping only when land was nowhere in sight. His body collapsed weakly on the soft floor, a cloud of sand flowing up around him before settling back into place.

Her voice was gone, and in the hands of a dark mage.

He didn't even try to stop the pain that erupted within him.

Runaan only watched as pearl after pearl appeared in the sand surrounding him.

 


	11. Kiss the Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 As the days passed, she loved the prince more fondly. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1,000 views.
> 
> Hello people I have never met, and welcome to the insanity of really strange updating schedules and a worryingly overwhelming obsession with mermaids.

**The lagoon was tucked away behind the palace,** hidden in a grove of trees and stone walls. A single waterway to the ocean branched off from the area, and light from the setting sun gleamed into the small lagoon.

It was beautiful.

Rayla had never been to one before, only having heard of them from those who traveled near the shore for trade. It was even more beautiful than she could've ever imagined.

Callum helped Rayla into a small boat that was tied to a dock hidden away within the seagrass and overgrowth. He took the seat across from her, starting to row the boat out into the clear, shallow waters.

The little elf moved to look over the side, where she could see several small fish swimming around down below. She didn't recognize any of them, and it occurred to her that they were freshwater fish. Callum had mentioned a small stream that fed into the lagoon, perhaps the current flowed to the ocean and didn't allow the salty water to enter.

Rayla reached her hand down to the water, letting it flow over her hand. There was a splash to the side, and the elf looked up to the side of the lagoon.

"Hey, look, ducks!" Callum called, pointing to the strange creatures.

That's what they were, _ducks!_

"I wish I'd know there were some around here, we could've brought stuff to feed them."

Rayla leaned out over the water, ignoring the way the boat dangerously rocked to the side and Callum's small warning. She reached out her hand, beckoning the ducks to her.

The animals swam off.

She let out an annoyed huff, returning to a sitting position in the boat and resting her arms on the side of the canoe.

"Hey, are you ready?" Callum suddenly asked, and Rayla turned to face him with a questioning look. "The sun's set, it won't be long before twilight passes and the sky is dark."

Callum reached under the sea, pulling out small square of paper. He began unfolding it, to reveal a large rectangular shape. She noticed a circular rim of metal underneath.

"My mother used to take me and Ezran out to do this every now and then. Ezran doesn't remember much of it though," he explained.

He handed her the paper, before pulling out two small rocks.

"Here, hold it up by the top of the shape."

Rayla complied, and Callum began quickly striking the rocks together underneath it, when a small flame suddenly lit underneath.

"Have you ever released a flying lantern before?" Callum asked, taking the object from Rayla.

She carefully signed what he had taught her to mean ' _no_ '.

The prince smiled, "I think it's dark enough now. All you have to do is carefully push the lantern into the air, making sure the flame inside is large enough and the paper is smoothed so that it won't burn mid-flight."

Rayla nodded, carefully holding half of the large lantern while Callum took the other half. They both gently brought their hands up above the water, and Rayla watched in awe when — as promised — the lantern began slowly rising and floating away.

They both sat in silence, staring out over the water as the gentle glow seemed to steadily grow out over the lagoon as the sky began filling with stars. Rayla turned to Callum, who seemed to sense her movement and looked her way.

Their eyes met, and it was suddenly clear how close they were to each other.

 _This would be the perfect opportunity to kiss him,_ Rayla thought.

The two of them seemed to lean forward in perfect sinc, and Rayla closed her eyes as she thought of all of the events of the past days. With the starlight reflecting off of the water surrounding her, and the moon's rays shining on her skin it was as if nothing had ever been wrong. She would soon become human, as Viren had promised. She would no longer have to worry about the thought of death, or be plagued with constant presence of—

Pain shot through her legs as it had before, and once against she felt her energy fading. It started her out of the trance, her balance suddenly thrown of as she reached for the side of the boat to steady herself. Her hand only found open air.

It happened in an instant, and she found herself unable to stop the fall that pulled at her. A second later she found herself submerged in water. For a split second she was completely relaxed, she had no reason not to be. The water felt strange against her skin; she'd never been in freshwater before. The baths that the maids drew for her were always filled with salts that were meant to sooth her dry skin.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the surface above her, so close compared to what she usually saw in the ocean, and a golden light was visible, casting a glow throughout the water.

It was then that she realized she had no idea how to swim with feet, and that her lungs were beginning to burn.

She tried kicking her legs, moving her body in a way she normally did with her tail, but found that the dress she wore weighed her down.

There was a splash from above, and a figure appeared before her, arms wrapping around her body and pulling her upwards.

They both sharply inhaled as they broke the surface of the water, and when she opened her eyes she found herself staring into Callum's. They sat there for several seconds, Rayla held protectively in the arms of the prince, before Rayla found herself laughing.

It was so ironic, how she had been the one to originally save him, and now here they were. Rayla had been saved from drowning by the very one she had done the same for.

She found herself wishing the moment would never end.  
  
  


**•  •  •**  
  
  


Shortly after Rayla returned to her room, she was hit with another wave of strange, weakening pain. Her vision blurred, and she had to brace herself against the wall in order to keep herself from collapsing onto the floor. After the worse of the pain passed, she managed to pull herself up. When she saw her hand, she froze.

There, in faint, intricate patterns across her skin, were the distinct shapes of shimmery, blue scales.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this?? A Tangled reference??????
> 
> Actually, it's more of a reference to a scene in The Legend of the Blue Sea, where the mermaid tells the human that, whenever they want to meet, he should light a flying lantern and send it into the sky, that way she'll be able to see it from under the water and meet him. It actually ended up being more of a Tangled reference though😅
> 
> The scene I based it on is actually incredibly beautiful, and if anyone is interested to watch it here is the clip-
> 
> https://youtu.be/A-D8wUudUcI
> 
> (Though please note that it is a Korean drama, so the music playing in the backround isn’t in English)


	12. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Every one was enchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling; and she danced again quite readily, to please him, though each time her foot touched the floor it seemed as if she trod on sharp knives. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Oh wow, I keep on adding stuff in on how the ending of this book will play out, I'd better start actually writing it
> 
> Also me: Add in a chapter that's nothing but Viren's constant internal evil monologue just cuz

**Panic blinded Rayla as she hastily pulled herself out of her sopping wet dress.** A bath was waiting for her, as she'd requested the servants to do each night. She sunk into the water, running it over her skin in hopes that the scales would fade like they had under the ocean.

The longer her hand stayed in the warm water, the more and more visible the scales became.

There had to have been something wrong with Viren's spell. She found herself sinking underneath the water in the tub. Her scales had never been so promenant and visible, yet now they appeared to be just as blue and luminescent as the scales on her tail had been.

She didn't know how they could've become like this.

Viren. Viren would know what to do.

The mermaid pulled herself out of the water, quickly dressing herself in a nightgown and making her way to the door. It had been quite late when Callum and Rayla had returned, and she suspected that most of the palace was now asleep. She needed to find where Viren would be.

When he'd first found her, she'd been brought to a strange tower, if she could just find the way there she should be able to speak with him.

She ran, despite the pain that filled her legs with each step and the exhaustion that threatened to steal her consciousness.

She stopped by a window, peering out over the beach and tide as it came in.

There was a tower, rimmed with a dark, freshwater stone and on the thin border between land and sea. The sandstone lining the walls was chipping away, revealing black rock underneath.

She made her way towards the tower, racing through the hallways and down several staircases in the direction of the tower.

Just when she thought she'd finally gotten herself lost, Rayla turned yet another corner only to run straight into a tall human.

She looked up, finding herself in the presence of the very mage she was looking for. Immediately she began going through several hand signs, trying her best to spell out what had happened with what signs she remembered.

"Whatever are you in such a frenzy for, elf?" the mage asked, taking her wrists to stop her from fumbling over her spelling even more than she already had.

In response, she looked down at her hand, Viren released and Rayla held it out to him.

A look of shock crossed his face.

"Come with me."  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Viren watched the little elf retreating through the darkened hallway, a small vial of a shimmery purple liquid in her hand, and his palm resting on the door as it swung closed.

It seemed as if the spell was draining her magic much more quickly than he had originally anticipated. He reached into his pocket, dragging out the small orb that rested within, the constant, endless singing beginning to once again fill the tower, echoing off of the walls and filling the very air around him with its power.

Perhaps that was the problem. An ocean elf without their voice wasn't very magical at all. Viren had assumed that the rest of the magic within her would be enough, as ocean elves held much more magic than the others in order to fulfill their needs underneath the surface. The water would normally be too cold for them to survive, so their bodies naturally warmed the water around them as needed, and they had the strange ability to communicate with each other normally and prevent the water from distorting their voices.

In every way it would be impossible for someone to survive, their magic made up for it.

He briefly wondered if it was due to her age, and she hadn't had enough time for the ocean to fully fill her body with magic.

Still, that only made his recent discovery even more fruitful.

The dark mage made his way across the room, reaching his bookshelf and placing a few carefully placed stones beside it. A few seconds later, the shelf began to move downwards, it's contents sinking into the floor and revealing a passageway behind it. He followed the small hallway, heading down the thin staircase, using Rayla's voice to light the way. He paused when he came to an old rusted cell, the smell of mildew and moss was prominent in the air. The mage tried to spend as little time as possible in this area, for fear that the air would pollute his lungs and cause an illness.

He slipped a key into the cell's lock, carefully opening it and pushing away the rusted bars. A look of disgust brushed his face as his foot stepped into a puddle of water from one of the many leaks in the ceiling and walls.

Viren held up the voice, illuminating the sole occupant of the cell.

The prisoner remained still, his arms locked in their positions above his head and his skin covered in a million small, lavender scales that were slowly but surely drying and flaking off, traces of blood caked over and threatening to break and let blood flow once again. A long, thin tail stretched out across the floor, bruised and bloody splotched scattered across it.

"I see your physical situation hasn't grown any better," Viren mentioned, looking down at the ocean elf with disgust, "though I do hope your mentality has changed."

The merman remained silent.

"Of course, I've always wondered what would happen to a fish who's stayed out of water for too long," he continued, "how long they would last before the strain becomes too much."

The merman moved for the first time, his eyes glaring up at the sorcerer.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but was interrupted by the chains binding his wrist suddenly glowing a white hot color. The elf let out a single grunt of pain, before returning to silence.

Viren frowned, clutching Rayla's voice even more tightly.

"You cannot sing here, it is enchanted to steal any magic you attempt to release."

The dark mage sighed, seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere on this particular night, and turned. Closing the gate and locking it once more.

He left without a word.

Runaan looked up, watching the faint green glow fade as the mage disappeared, and silently cursing every human who'd ever walked the face of their earth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's finally Christmas break, and I've made it my goal to try and do daily updates all throughout it. We'll see how long this lasts.


	13. Jelly Tarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story- This chapter was completed and published on Wattpad last night, but I was an idiot and forgot to post it here.

**The scales had faded after Rayla poured a small bit of the potion Viren had given her onto them.** She held up her hand, marveling at how the glimmering liquid was able to transform the scales into skin once more.

It was strange how much to color resembled the scale color of Runaan.

Remembering her old mentor hurt her heart, and she pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

Viren had told her to hide the potion away, to make sure no one found it to avoid suspicion.

She made sure that the cork sealing the bottle closed was secured, then moved the blankets on her bed, hiding it between the sheets and the side of the mattress, behind the bed.

No one would find it there.

She took one look out the window, peering longingly out over the sea, before climbing into her bed and drifting into a deep, restless sleep.  


**• • •**  
  


The passageway was hidden behind an old painting of a girl. Ezran had excitedly led her away after breakfast that morning, telling Rayla to make sure no one was following them before bringing her to the secret hallway.

"I can't believe you've never had a jelly tart before!" he exclaimed, for possibly the hundredth time that morning, "How could anyone _live_ without them."

Honestly, Rayla didn't know. Upon discovering that Rayla hadn't yet decided to try one of the pastries that were often placed on the table at dinner time, Ezran proceeded to make it his personal mission to get one — or fifty — for Rayla to try.

"Here, can you take Bait for a second?" he asked, "I need to make sure the coast is clear for him to be a distraction."

With that, the small boy got down to his knees, and began crawling trough a small vent in the side of the passageway.

"The baker isn't looking," he whispered a few seconds later, "quickly, place Bait in his position!"

Rayla smiled, moving to the one window in the hall, quietly pushing the back of a painting out of place, and gently setting the glow toad onto the table in the kitchen before pulling the painting back to its original position.

If they had to go through this much trouble for a jelly tart, they _must_ be even more amazing than Ezran promised.

"Okay, I'm going in," Ezran whispered, disappearing from the passage and into the kitchens, "The coast is clear, Rayla, I need backup!"

The elf grinned, following the child into the kitchen.

"Jackpot! They haven't stored them away yet! Bait, you're on guard duty."

The glowtoad let out a croak in response.

Ezran began piling several of the sweets into his arms, "Quickly, grab as many as possible!"

Rayla immediately began gathering up the jelly tarts, using her skirt as a bag in order to hold more.

"Ezran, is that you again?" a voice suddenly called from the side.

"Oh no, Rayla, run!" Ezran shouted, quickly dumping the jelly tarts that were in his arms into Rayla's skirt-basket and hurrying to grab Bait.

The three of them rushed back into the passage, Ezran pulling the door to it closed as Rayla burst into a silent laughter.

"We did it!" Ezran cheered, "Let's go find Callum!"

The child led Rayla through the hidden hallways, up several sloping staircases and past many exits and branching corridors.

Eventually they came across what appeared to be the back of a bookshelf. Ezran pushed it open, revealing a small bedroom.

"Come on, put them on the table!"

The elf complied, dumping the ridiculous amount of sweets onto a wooden table to the side of the room.

Ezran ran to a door on one wall, opening it and calling into the other room, "Callum, we have jelly tarts!"

Rayla peeked into the other room, surprised to see Callum sitting at a desk in there. The walls and floors were covered in drawings and stray pieces of paper.

Callum stood, "Oh, Rayla, I didn't know you'd be visiting here."

"We just raided the kitchen for jelly tarts!" Ezran piped up, seemingly oozing excitement from head to toe.

"Ez, you know you aren't supposed to do that. What if the chef comes up here looking for you and finds them?"

"We'll just have to eat them before then."

Callum rolled his eyes, standing from his desk and making his way into Ezran's bedroom.

"Oh, Ez..." Callum said as his eyes fell onto the pile of jelly tarts, "How on Earth did you manage to steal this many without getting caught?"

"Oh, Rayla helped me!" the young prince stated happily, "She filled his skirt with them, and brought them here."

"How on Earth do you plan on eating all of these?"

"You can never have too many jelly tarts. Plus, Rayla's never had them before. She needs to make up for her years without them."

Rayla laughed, picking one up from the ridiculously sized pile.

She took a bite, and a delicious foreign flavor exploded on her tongue.

"How is it, Rayla?" Ezran asked.

Rayla's expression was a good enough answer for him.

"Yes! She likes them!"

In response, Rayla grabbed another one of the sweets. It was incredible, there was nothing like this in the ocean. Her diet originally consisted on seaweed and kelp recipes, with sashimi and crustaceans filling most of her meals. Never before had she eaten anything so _sweet_.

Since this was their seaside palace, most of their meals was seafood caught recently since it was readily available, and Rayla just ate what she recognized from back home.

Bread and sugar was so foreign.

Ezran grabbed a few from the pile, eating them happily. Callum eventually gave in and grabbed one as well.

"How on Earth do you think we'll be able to eat all of these today?" he asked.

"They're jelly tarts, we'll just replace all of our other meals with them until we finish them."

Rayla slowly spelt out _good plan_ in sign language.

Callum sighed, taking another jelly tart as he shook his head in disbelief.

"You two are ridiculous."


	14. One Step Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooooo sorry it took so long to update this, I was going to try to do daily updates but the holidays and writer's block had other plans. So I guess merry late Christmas and happy 2019???
> 
> I'm turning 18 this month, help.
> 
> Also, someone made fanart for this book?!?!?!?!?!?!
> 
> I've never had anyone do that before, so when I saw it I freaked out, texted all of my friends, etc.
> 
> Here's the link to the art if anyone wants to see it!
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/672592797-rayllum-one-shots-the-little-water-elf

 

 **A few days later,** Ezran burst into Rayla's room with the news that their aunt — a woman with the name Amaya — was stopping by and going to take them to a nearby city for a summer festival.

"She's deaf, too," he continued, "so you don't have to worry about not being able to speak, even if you don't know the sign for a word you can mouth it and she'll understand."

Rayla listened intently to Ezran's excited rambling, standing and moving to slip on a pair of shoes.

"She should be here any minute now, we have to go downstairs to meet her."

With that, Ezran grabbed Rayla's hand, and the two began running down the hall.

She was so used to the pain at this point. Rayla hardly noticed how they ached at each step.

When they reached the foyer at the front of the castle, a man with red hair and a tall, intimidating woman who wore full armor were standing, conversing with the king and Callum.

"Aunt Amaya!" Ezran shouted, and the man standing next to the woman gently nudged her, causing her to turn and notice the small boy.

I'm an instant she was down on her knees, embracing Ezran, any and all trace of her intimidating aura gone.

"Why didn't you say you were going to be visiting today?" he asked.

The woman — whom Rayla now realized was Amaya — began moving her hands in what Rayla recognized to be sign language. The redhead next to her began speaking, "It was meant to be a surprise."

Rayla hardly noticed when Callum moved to stand by her side, and startled when he spoke.

"You haven't met Rayla yet," he said, placing a hand on the elf's shoulder.

Hesitating slightly, Rayla quickly signed a greeting.

Amaya's face seemed to light up, and she began signing something she didn't recognize.

"Rayla isn't very good at sign language yet," Callum explained, "she can't speak, so we've been trying to teach her. She can't speak."

The woman nodded, signing something else. This time, the man by her side translated.

"Then I can help teach you."  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


The carriage left an hour later, the man — whom Rayla learned to be called Gren — driving the horses down a sheltered path in the forest. Sunlight streamed down through the treetops, raining down on the path in a million bright beams.

Ezran sat by Amaya, while Callum was with Rayla. A gentle breeze filtered throughout the carriage, where Ezran was excitedly speaking of all the amazing things they'd done since arriving at the Atlantis Lodge. He told Amaya about the storm which wrecked their boat the first night, and how they'd found Callum on the beach the next morning.

Callum's gaze became distant as Ezran talked, drifting off into his own far-off world.

Rayla placed a hand on his knee, bringing him back down to earth. She looked at him, a small smile gracing her lips, and he smiled back.

It wasn't long before the dirt path they were on gave way to cobblestone and the trees thinned out and buildings started appearing alongside the road. More and more people Rayla saw crossing the streets, and the carriage slowed to a stop at the side of a large circle, lined with shops and booths that sold various things.

Callum exited, holding out his hand and helping Rayla down from the horse-drawn carriage. Amaya handed Callum a pouch of coins, sending him and Rayla off to do their own things.

At every step Rayla took, her feet exploded in pain, but at every step she found herself paying less and less attention to it, becoming preoccupied with the wonders around her.

The was a stand with wreaths of flowers hung up in rows, and Rayla found herself staring as they passed. Callum seemed to catch her staring, opting to stop and look at the arrangements of fresh flowers.

Suddenly Rayla felt a weight drop onto her head, and she looked up from the arrangements to see Callum arranging one of the flower wreaths onto her head.

"The blues and greens bring out your eyes," he explained, "would you like it?"

Rayla nodded, and Callum handed a coin to the person managing the booth, who thanked him before the duo walked away.

The two of them made their way down a side street, and music filled the air around them.

It soon became apparent that Rayla wouldn't be able contain her excitement. Her eyes lit up silently at each new discovery at every turn. Rayla unconsciously took Callum's hand, dragging him along as she marveled at every who's-it and what's-it and seemed to ask a silent question every second. They eventually turned a corner to the next street, finding themselves face to face with a small, shaded path decorated with flowers of every kind.

The flower stand from earlier was nothing compared to this.

She tightened her grip on Callum's hand, feeling him squeeze her in response. Rayla began running through the tunnel of flowers, a silent laugh filling the air around her with a deafening emptiness.

The path emptied out into a flower-filled garden, a pavilion with musicians preforming placed in the center. Various humans, young and old, danced throughout it.

Callum must've seen the longing in her eyes, because he moved to the area in front of her, lowering himself into a bow, not once letting go of her hand.

"M'lady," he said, a laugh playing at the edge of his voice, " _may I have this dance._ "

Rayla curtsied, letting herself be dragged off to the circle of dancing pairs.

They twirled in an endless loop, and in that moment Rayla found herself lost to the world around her. Even though each step was more painful than the last, and even though the thought of death was heavy in her heart, she couldn't help but loose herself in the bright green eyes in front of her.

The music faded to emptiness, Callum twirling her and her skirt fluttering out around her.

By the time the music slowed to a stop the exhaustion began to take hold of her, and she found it hard to remain standing on her own two feet. Without Callum there she probably would've collapsed instantly.

But he was there, and as she peered into his eyes she knew that in that moment, he had no intention of ever letting her fall.

The world was a million miles away from them, nothing else seemed to exist. Another song started up, and though Rayla was certain she'd collapse if given a second to rest, she began dancing once more.

This feeling was addicting, she never wanted it to end. She never wanted to leave his warm embrace.

Even after the music stopped, even after they met up with the others and returned to the castle, and even after she returned to her post on the steps by the sea that night, the feeling of enchantment never left her being.


	15. Tinker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「Once during the night her sisters came up arm-in-arm, singing sorrowfully, as they floated on the water. She  
> beckoned to them, and then they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them.」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK i'm rly sorry this took so long. i've been distracted with rwby cuz my heart can't handle the feels.
> 
> also, has anyone seen the new tdp character???? the one who has red hair and looks like pyrrha?
> 
> yea, i'm in love with her.

 

 **Rumors had started to travel only a few days after Runaan left over the border.** Tinker could hear the students whispering as they quietly swum through the halls, passing notes in secrecy and letting their fear slowly rise up and into the foam.

_Runaan has gone searching for Rayla and never returned._

_The humans were crossing the border and kidnapping the merfolk._

_War was brewing and they were caught in the middle of it._

Their worries were ridiculous and had no evidence whatsoever, but for a race so foreign to this type of fear, they automatically went to the worst possible scenarios.

It had been a week since Runaan left at this point, and though Tinker tried to keep the worries off of his mind, distracting himself with training and pouring all of his spare time into taking over Runaan's classes.

The worry was finally beginning to catch up to him.

He was lingering in his and Runaan's room, just outside the academy, grading assignments and overseeing the sheet music for new song-spells he was compiling for the next week.

However, there was one slight problem. His thoughts kept drifting back to Rayla and Runaan. It was pitiful, really. He was nothing but a blacksmith, a simple tinkerer who specialized in magic underwater weapons. He had no experience with humans — and quite frankly didn't _want_ that experience.

Still, he felt no regret whatsoever as he packed a small bag, tied it's strap around his waist, and began the long swim to the border.

He could only hope that both Rayla _and_ Runaan would be okay.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Rayla stared down at her plate, the strange lump of meat sitting there, as if it were taunting her.

She'd already eaten all of the other things on her plate, trying to postpone eating the one thing foreign to her. Rayla poked it with her fork. It was thicker than fish, and didn't fall apart when she stabbed it. The others had cut it with a knife before eating smaller pieces, so she decided to do just that.

When she put the strange food into her mouth, she was slightly disappointed. It tasted nothing like fish, and seemed to lack any notable flavor. It was edible, though, so she quickly finished it before standing and excusing herself from the table, hoping to catch Callum in the hall. The boy had left a few minutes earlier.

That was when the pain once again heightened, blinding her senses.

Rayla was used to these moments at this point, and familiar with the sick feeling that entered her stomach as the pin receded. She found herself leaning against the wall, her head resting against the edge of a window that faced the sea. She swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat, gently dabbed away the sweat from her otherwise dry forehead, and pushed herself once again to her feet.

Her eyes drifted to her wrists, where the faint image of scales was clear against her pale skin.

She sighed, beginning the walk back to her room. Rayla couldn't go to find Callum any more, she needed to use Viren's potion to disguise her scales — again.

Rayla tried to convince herself it was worth it. It was either this or the chance that Viren would've used her for one of his dark magic spells.

Each day, despite longing for her thoughts to change and be positive, she found it was harder and harder to believe she made the correct choice.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


The tide was extremely high that night, with the water reaching a part of the steps she hadn't yet seen it at. The moon was quite full, and the smell of salt and sand seemed to be much more potent than it had the previous nights she'd been out by the water.

Rayla gazed out over the water, looking at the stars and their silent reflection in the sea.

There was a sudden movement, causing the still image to ripple into a million scattered pieces. Rayla looked up, alarmed at the almost unnoticeable change.

If she were human, she probably wouldn't have noticed, but she'd grown up in the ocean. She knew when something wasn't right.

The mermaid stood, leaning out over the water with one hand resting on the staircase's railing for support. She would've called out if she could, but that clearly wasn't an option.

She could see the top of one's head peeking out of the water, and her heart seemed to stop when she recognized exactly who it was.

Rayla reached out an arm, becoming to the figure that had silently emerged from the water. He seemed to realize who she was, and rose even further from the safety of the ocean's embrace.

"Rayla?"

The muted silence in the air seemed to numb the sound. It had been so long since she'd heard the voice of a fellow ocean elf, so long since she'd heard the magic laced within the way they spoke.

Her hand flew to her mouth, and she let go of the staircase's rail, stepping into the water without hesitation, slowly making her way to the sand and wading through the shallow water as Tinker carefully approached.

He took her hand, and looked at her with such sadness that Rayla's eyes pricked with the pain of unseen tears.

"Rayla— how— what— you have legs!" Tinker managed to mutter out, taking the younger elf's face into his hands.

Rayla simply nodded, a smile spilling over to fill her face. Tinker was here, _he was here!_ Did that mean Runaan was here too?

"Rayla, _speak_ , what happened?" Tinker asked, and the smile fell from the mermaid's face.

She patted her throat, hoping the small gesture was enough to get her point across.

"You can't speak?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Oh, Rayla, _what happened to you?_ "

They sat in silence for several minutes, Tinker wrapping Rayla into an embrace, not really knowing what to think.

Rayla, an ocean elf, one he saw as his own daughter, had _legs_ instead of a tail. _Legs_.

And she had no voice.

"Did a dark mage do this to you?"

The silent nod was all the confirmation he needed.

A dark mage had done this to Rayla.

He could only imagine what had happened to Runaan.

 


	16. Three Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Very soon it was said that the prince must marry, and that the beautiful daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife, for a fine ship was being fitted out 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, the angst begins.

**Rayla found that her encounter with Tinker left her in an void of emptiness and regret.** She ended up sleeping far into the day, and missing both breakfast and lunch.

Claudia came in to check on her around late-morning, confused as to why she hadn't come out of her room as of yet. She was usually one of the first up.

Rayla realized how devoid of emotion she must've looked. She'd tried her hardest not to cry after returning to her room, and succeeded. But at the moment she was numb. The pain that slowly tugged at her body was suddenly oh so obvious.

Claudia must've told her father at some point, because a few hours later there was a knock at her door, with the dark mage's familiar voice calling to her. It occurred to her then that she hadn't yet risen from bed, and her arms and legs were no doubt beginning to have scales cover them.

She needed to rise, and use Viren's potion.

The mage opened her door, closing it quietly behind him.

Rayla regretfully pulled herself up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and wincing as they touched the cold floor. That was strange, she didn't remember her scales ever being red before.

She moved to stand, letting out a silent cry of pain when she felt the skin on the soles of her feet split and crack. Rayla fell, feeling Viren's hand on her shoulders as he attempted to steady her.

"What are you doing? Why haven't you used to potion yet?"

Rayla remained silent.

"Stupid elf," he mumbled, forcing her back into her bed and fumbling in his robes for something. His hand emerged with a vile of a shimmery powder, which he opened and poured into the air over her legs. The pain seemed to dull slightly. "There, that should allow you to make it to the bathroom and tub. Now use the potion, please don't forget to do so in the future."

Rayla nodded, standing and carefully making her way across the room.

She didn't even notice the small trail of blood swiftly being whisked away by the same powder Viren had used to numb her pain.  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


It was definitely glowing more brightly than before.

That was something Viren was certain of.

It seemed that his magic was working faster than he'd expected, and if his predictions were correct, there should be enough magic stored up by the end of the week.

Saturday he would begin his plan, then. Three days more of pretending. After all, he had two ocean elves now. That was more than enough magic to last him — well, if he used it sparingly, he could see that kind of magic lasting over a decade.

The spells he'd been using with the elder elf weren't nearly as wasteful as the ones he'd used on the mermaid. After all, he didn't need to pretend he was helping the elf in his hidden dungeon. He just needed to keep him well enough to never be in danger of death.

If only the stupid merman would tell him what he needed to know, then he would be able to steal his voice, take every bit of his magic, and be done with it.

Stealing the magic from the voice of a siren was much more... _complicated_. The process being even worse considering the fact that the damn elf refused to even speak to him. He'd learned after what had happened during his first few nights in that cell — try to sing, and his magic would only be further drained.

The glow in the middle of his chamber heightened, and the sound of Rayla's voice grew, this time to song being nothing but simple, mumbling humming from when the elf was no doubt singing to herself.

It was interesting, having everything the elf had ever said right in the clutches of his hands, he somewhat wished he had control over what the voice did, that he could go back and listen to each conversation and pick out the pieces that were important. But no, if it were that easy he could've just stolen the merman's voice as well and been done with it.

He'd noticed that every time the voice's glow brightened was when more of Rayla's magic returned to it. He'd seen what it did to the ocean elf, but as long as she remained blissfully oblivious to what was happening to her it would be perfectly fine.

He went back to look at the spellbook that lay open on his desk, flipping through page after page. Claudia had been telling him how close the prince and elf had been getting, gossiping about how she suspected Callum had a small crush on her.

There were only three days left until he'd be able to cast the simple spell that would change everything.

It was common knowledge to him about Callum's old crush on Claudia, though he wasn't quite sure if those feelings still remained. Either way, it was always simple to bring up the memory of feelings rather than create what never existed in the first place.

Rayla had three more days to get the prince to kiss her. Three days that would turn into fruitless attempts to create a connection that no longer existed.

Viren exited his lair, making his way down the empty hallways and silent corridors. The princes shared a pair of connecting chambers, ones that were located on the near end of the castle.

He mumbled a simple spell of silence under his breath as he entered Callum's room, before chanting an incantation under his breath. This one was similar to the spell that took Rayla's voice, only much more complex and advanced.

The small, glowing light that made his way into his palm kept flashing scene after scene of a single elven girl.

Viren clutched the feeling of love tightly in his hand, exiting the bedroom as he slipped the love into his pocket.

There was no way Rayla would get her kiss now.

The brewing love potion in his chamber made sure of it.

 


	17. Down to the Depths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 She thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter updates in one day!! Woo!!!!!

**The swim back to the Xadian side of the border was long,** cold, and full of terrifying thoughts. Tinker didn't know what he was going to say. He knew where Rayla was, but how was he going to explain to the other elves that Rayla, one of the most adored and talented proteges in the younger generation, had been captured and turned into a human — most likely with dark magic.

The thoughts swirled in his head win the strength of a million whirlpools, making his head ache at the slightest pull of the current.

By the time he crossed the border, the sun had risen, filling the familiar seas with the beautiful golden glow that appeared every morning. It was as if the world was completely oblivious to the tragedy of news he was returning with.

Runaan's team was waiting in the council room, no doubt discussing the absence of their leader and head mentor to the younger elves. When Tinker entered the cavern, they all went silent. Tinker simply sat there, floating in silence as he looked down, trying to compose his thoughts.

"Well, have you received any information on their whereabouts?" the one mermaid on the team asked, her voice low and smooth through the water.

Being in their presence had always been intimidating. After all, they were the most powerful song spell casters in this area of the ocean. They had to be, with their city as close to the border as it was.

"I'm not quite certain the news I bring is what you wish to hear," was Tinker's reply.

"Well, out with it, or has the catfish caught your tongue?"

Tinker gulped, taking in a huge breath of water before replying, "Rayla has been captured by humans. I suspect that Runaan is in a similar situation."

This caused the other elves to go completely still.

"What do you mean?"

"I spotted Rayla sitting at the steps to a human castle, legs in place of her find and her voice completely stolen. I sensed that a large portion of her magic was gone, I won't be surprised if she's dead soon, considering how sickly she appeared, even for a land-walker."

The other elves urged him to continue, and so he did. He went on about how he suspected whomever did this to Rayla had found Runaan as well, and that they were purposefully stealing away every bit of magic they held.

"Have the humans gone even more insane?" one of the younger elves on the team questioned, "Don't tell me they plan to try crossing by the seas again? It's been years since any humans have even been spotted anywhere near the ocean's border!"

"If that's the case, we have no choice but to leave," the sole mermaid piped up once again, "Atlantis has several spare buildings and caverns for if a situation like this ever occurred. The other elves have no chance of winning at sea, and with one of out best sirens gone there's no telling what might happen."

"That's what I was afraid you might say," Tinker murmured, leaning back on the wall f the cavern, "I'm assuming you'll have to forge an official announcement to the city? And an announcement of us leaving for the land elves?"

"There's no other choice, we can't risk staying here, lest even more of our children get captured. We have an easy escape from the impending doom, we need to act now before there's nothing left to save!"

As much as he disagreed with the course of action, Tinker couldn't help but agree. Other than song-spells and enchantments, their kind was virtually helpless. If the dark mages had ways to steal their voices and bring two of their best onto land, there wasn't really even a choice left.

"I'm sorry, Tinker, I know how much the two of them mean to you, but—"

"We can't risk it, I know. We should collect our thoughts and make the announcement by noon, after everyone's had the chance to rise."

The air of silence left when Tinker swam away was simple, broken, and that of one with no hope left.

Tinker had lost his lover, and the one he'd seen as his own daughter.

The rest of the elves may be leaving, but he would stay. Even if he was the sole ocean elf left in the shallow oceans, he'd wait for them.

The announcement was made when the sun was at his highest. A pod of dolphins had been sent around the city, sending out a series of clicks and whistles to call out any merfolk from their homes and to the city's center.

When all was revealed, the fear in the air was enough for Tinker to realize that, even if he and the other sirens were willing to stay and fight, the majority of the merfolk were a peaceful race, only living near the surface due to some idealistic belief that they were a superior, stronger race that not even an army of human mages could defeat. To them, the war was unreal, and the slightest sign of disaster was enough to send them fleeing to the safety of the ocean's depths.

Ignorance was bliss, he supposed, but with the way things were, he was honestly surprised this panic hadn't set in sooner.

Ocean elves really were pathetic, hiding in the seas their entire lives and spending their day stressing over how their hair looked when the riptide caught it or if their voice was good enough to enchant a sea slug.

Rayla hadn't been like them, though. She'd wanted more, and decided to search for it, which had ultimately led to her downfall.

Captured by humans.

The thought almost made him want to laugh.

And so, while every other merperson for miles around began packing away their mirrors and seashell hair clips, he sat in the room he'd shared with Runaan, and began planning out the evacuation procedures the rest of the elves would follow on their way back to Atlantis.

The trip that he would never take.

 


	18. Lull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 I cannot love her; she is not like the beautiful maiden in the temple, whom you resemble. If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with those expressive eyes. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall season 2 is gonna be here in a week and I am n oT ready

**The room was small,** and had a large pair of windows that overlooked the ocean, and morning light filled the area with a beautiful, golden glow. Callum was leaning against the glass windows, a sketchbook open in his lap as he mindlessly drew out the image of something.

Rayla stood silently in the doorway for several minutes, before casually tapping on the wood frame.

Callum jumped at the sudden noise, his head shooting up and only relaxing once he saw it was only her.

"Hey, I didn't realize you were there."

Rayla waved her hand, as if to say _No problem, it's okay._

She made her way across the room, settling in a position next to Callum and peering around at the strange instruments decorating the room.

She recognized one, from the inside of a shipwreck she explored a long time ago. It had been beautiful, with various plants and sea-flowers deciding to make their home along the decorated frame, bits of sea-weed tangling around the strings that stretched across the middle. They had similar instruments in Xadia, though she couldn't quite remember the name.

A lyre, perhaps?

The poked Callum's shoulder, pointing to the instrument with a distinct curiosity.

"Oh, that's a harp," Callum casually said, "I'm not certain anyone here knows how to play it, though."

Rayla stood, making her way across the tiled floor and sitting at the decorated chair positioned by the instrument. She looked at Callum, as if to ask for permission. He nodded, and Rayla timidly plucked one of the strings.

A simple, melodious note rang out, echoing gently off of the music room's walls. The sound was familiar, in a way.

It was the sound of the ocean, she realized. It was a ridiculous comparison, but the only one that seemed to be fitting.

With a newfound confidence, she began strumming her hands along the instrument, the notes that resulted were simple and melody-less. A mess of measures and tunes that clashed and shouldn't have ever been played together, yet instead of ruining the music they only seemed to compliment each other.

It was a song like that of the ocean's constant lull. Inconsistent, endless, and filled with a silent melody only few could care to understand, or even attempt to hear.

Callum watched her from his position at the side of the room, and she was well aware of his eyes on her. Silent, awed.

All of her thoughts drifted away, leaving the familiar feeling she thought she'd never feel again. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, it was as if she could feel the cold of the riptide, smell the salty air from out in the middle of the Xadian seas, and hear the distant cry of dolphins from down beneath the waves.

It wasn't until there was yet another rush of pain throughout her body that she realized she'd been playing the instrument to the point where her fingers bled.

"Rayla!" she heard Callum shout as she attempted to pull herself up from where she'd fallen to the floor. Like all previous times she felt the rush of pain, she was left exhausted. This time, however, she could only stare at her hands. How her skin seemed to be drying out right before her eyes, and how blood just seemed to pool up in her hands from where the instrument's wires had cut into the sensitive skin.

Rayla closed her hands, allowing Callum to help her up before quickly bowing and running out of the room. Already the hidden scales were beginning to spread across her hands and up her arms.

How in Poseidon's reign was she going to get him to kiss her when, every chance she got to be with him, the pain returned?

She made it to her room, slamming the door shut and frantically running to her bathroom. As usual, the water in the tub was filled. She suspected Viren had ordered it to be so. There also appeared to be sunfire runes along the tub, which led Rayla to believe it was enchanted so that the water never cooled.

She grabbed the vial from its hidden placement, pouring the glimmery substance into the water. Rayla sunk her hands in first, watching with relief as the skin on her palms faded from the shimmery blue of scales to a pale, clear texture of human skin.

She ended up sitting there at the side of the tub, watching the water as she heaved in heavy, exhausted breaths.

Her heart hurt.

Even with the spells Viren had cast, she knew that this wouldn't be able to last forever.

Her magic was fading. Even to a simple, inexperienced elf like her she knew it was obvious.

She just didn't quite know how long it would be until she faded away completely.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


When Callum moved to run after Rayla, he found that, despite knowing he _wanted_ to chase her, he was left with an empty feeling of complete and utter _apathy_. The song Rayla had played struck something within him, like a distant memory. A feeling that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring to the surface.

Now, he was just numb. He couldn't seem recall what his previous interactions with the girl had been like, or what his relationship with her had grown to be.

It was just nothing.

He groaned, the jumble of mixed thoughts and unseen emotions made his head hurt.

Callum made his way to the harp, where Rayla had sat just moments before, his mind swirling with questions that he just couldn't seem to find the answers to. His fingers traced gently along the instrument's strings, the sharp silence being cut through as he plucked one.

He tried a few more. He just couldn't seem to match the flow of Rayla's melody-less song.

He pulled away from the strings, looking down at his hands. There were small traces of blood from where the harsh lines of metal had cut into her fingertips.

Callum stood and left the music room, the thought of Rayla far from his mind and the memory of the love he once felt for her distant and unseen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit that Rayla playing the harp in this episode is a small reference to a book I was obsessed with when I was little, from a series called Daughters of the Sea. In the first book Hannah (the main character) somehow knows how to play the harp despite never seeing one before. It's also a small nod to the fact that mermaids are often shown to be holding a small lyre/harp, and people often compare the sound of the instrument to the ocean.


	19. "White Lie"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 But the princess had not yet appeared. People said that she was being brought up and educated in a religious house, where she was learning every royal virtue. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the next chapter marks the start of the finale to this book. For the following chapters I'm going to try making them longer and more detailed, as the events are rly planned out and I've actually been looking forward to writing the ending since I started writing this and I REALLY don't want to mess this up. I'm going to try stretching this story out to AT LEAST 30,000 words; I originally wanted it to be longer, but when you're basing an entire book off of a simple small fairy tale and it's movie adaptation (with several musical numbers) it gets pretty difficult. This'll just be a small novella. I'm most definitely going to go back, edit chapters to make them longer, add in more character development, and try to improve the writing, so if you have any ideas for cute filler chapters and almost-kisses please comment them below and I might add them in later on!!

**The next morning** **'s** **breakfast was small,** as a ship was meant to depart the following day back to the main castle far from the sea. He supposed in another universe that meant Viren should've been worried about how Rayla would hold up, being so far from her primal source and natural home, but if everything went according to plan, they'd never make it far from shore and the elf would be dead soon.

He'd called Claudia into his official "study", one that wasn't hidden in the castle's tower, and let her sit with him at a table positioned by a window.

They spoke for a few minutes about nonsense things, before Viren stood.

"I need your help with a spell."

He led his daughter down through a secret staircase hidden behind an old painting. Claudia's face lit up at the appearance of the lair, her eyes flickering with a silent entrance as she scanned over the countless bits of material, all usable for dark magic.

"Come here," Viren beckoned, and when Claudia looked his way her sight was filled with the green glow of a siren's voice.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at the small bundle of light, the songs emanating from it making its way to her ears and filling her with a sudden, overwhelming desire to throw herself into the sea.

"Unfortunately the voice is inexperienced, and it's magic isn't cultivated enough to reach its highest point of power, but I thought it was something you'd take interest in," Viren spoke, his hand reaching out and plucking the voice from its pedestal careful to make sure that the clawed hand still held its contents tightly. "This is why I called you here, I managed to extract a small amount of it's power into here."

Viren held up a small vial, with a sickly looking, pale pink liquid inside. Claudia looked at him questioningly.

"I believe this potion can help you in using magic without need of material _or_ a primal source."

Claudia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she realized what her father was suggesting, "You mean— you've found a way to obtain _that type of power?_ "

Viren simply nodded.

"That's, like, the discovery of the century, dad!" Claudia exclaimed, "Do you realize what this means for mages all over? It's brilliant!"

Viren chuckled at his daughter's enthusiasm, "Now, it isn't quite that potent yet. I still need to tamper with the voice and find a way to make a more potent draught, but as of now, this is yours."

Viren tossed Claudia the small vial of liquid.

Of course, it certainly was not what he said it was. That kind of magic he had yet to find. It was but a simple love potion, one that would fade in only a few days. Still, it was enough for what he needed.

"Now, go ahead, _drink_."  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


The tide was high that night, yet the water was incredibly clear, even in the darkness.

The full moon shown down high above her, and she could still feel the gentle power it filled her with, even in human form. The ocean and moon complimented each other, the moon giving the ocean life and mischief while the ocean reflected and brightened the moon's light.

Two halves of the same coin, two parts of one whole.

Rayla stared out longingly over the sea, her heart aching for reasons she didn't quite know. The water suddenly felt colder, more foreign than it ever had before. In her previous days she'd known there was a whole civilization awaiting her in its gentle embrace. Now she wasn't sure if there even was anyone there in its icy depths.

The water was definitely colder, with summer ending and her ocean elf magic undoubtedly weaker than before, there was no warmth in the seas she once knew.

She found it funny how her mind was now filled with fear instead of familiarity at the thoughts of its depths.

Her thoughts drifted back to Callum, and she found herself cringing at the thought of when she'd last seen him. She'd run, like always. In the ocean it was either fight or flight — normally flight, where they'd swim as quickly as possible away from danger, even though they knew plenty of songs that could easily end the danger.

She looked back at the castle, at the dark windows that had become so familiar, and at the tower where she knew Callum and Ezran's rooms were located. There was a small light visible in one, and if she didn't know any better she could've sworn she saw a figure sitting at a desk, drawing something.

It was too far away to tell for sure.

Through the shallow water she could make out the faint, luminescent sight of a single pearl.

She stood, walking down the last few steps and wincing at the sharp pains in her feet. The mermaid bent down, picking up the small gem and holding it up.

Such a simple little object, yet one that held so much meaning.

She held the pearl up to the moonlight, a painful smile making its way to her face.

The moonlight reflected off of it in a certain, shimmery blue color. It was the tear of a merperson. She wouldn't be surprised if it was her own.

Letting the tear drop back into the ocean, she fell to the steps, her head resting on the rail and her eyes slipping closed. This was her last night by the sea. Callum had let her know that they were leaving for the main Katolis castle in the morning.

The capital was inland, away from the water.

The thought of leaving the one place she'd always know was both exciting and terrifying.

Mostly terrifying.

She briefly wondered that, if she started walking and let herself fall into the water, would she still be able to breath and return to her home? Perhaps the spell was simply an illusion, and she'd grow fins and get her voice back one she returned to the deeper parts of the sea.

A blinding pain suddenly filled her legs, creeping up her body to the point where she simply sat there, everything covered in a simple white hot burning.

When it finally faded, she found that the sight of the ocean made her sick.

Rayla stood, stepping out of the sea and returning to the castle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Claudia!! Don't drink the potion it's bad for you!!
> 
> o h nO SHE CAN'T HEAR US SHE HAS HER AIR PODS IN!!!!11!111


	20. Lure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 Yet, unless he married her, she could not receive an immortal soul; and, on the morning after his marriage with another, she would dissolve into the foam of the sea. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, season 2 killed me. Rayllum has a chance of becoming canon, and Aaron followed me on twitter. I am currently dying.

**The ship left shortly after sunrise the next day,** and Viren couldn't believe how  _easy_  everything was. Everything was going according to plan, and it was perfect. The elf girl was with Ezran, overlooking the receding shoreline and sharing a plate of jelly tarts as the young heir spoke excitedly to her. Callum was nearby, leaning against the railing and sketching something in that stupid book of his.

What the elf did with her time on the ship was nothing to him, though. His hand slipped into his pocket, resting on the tiny vial that held the entire essence of Callum's feeling of love. It was tampered, of course. You couldn't simply just  _delete_  someone's feelings for another, but what you  _could_  do was fabricate an intense desire to be with someone else. As long as his lingering feelings for Claudia were strong enough to drown out his affections for the elf, everything would be fine.

Right next to the vial was a small bundle of cloth, warmth gently seeping through the fabric and to his hand. After all, her voice was far too precious to leave at the castle, even for a few hours at most.

If everything went according to plan, they'd be back at the sea-side palace before sunset, and he'd have every bit of the elf girl's magic in his grasp.

Closing his eyes, he pulled at the magic of the voice in his pocket, mumbling a spell under his breath.

" _Saes eht fo kcis mih ekam._ "

As if on que, Callum seemed to grow pale, and Viren grinned. He casually walked up to Claudia, vial in hand.

"Claudia, dear, would you do me a favor and take this to Callum? He's looking a little sea-sick."

Claudia, as expected, agreed, and Viren could only watch as Callum gratefully took the potion from the girl. The seasickness spell would only last a few minutes. Just enough time.

He downed the entire thing in one sip, and Viren made his way to the back of the ship.

Time for part two of his plan.

" _Stnerruc eht tfihs._ "  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


The day passed slowly, and by the time lunch came around a blanket of grey clouds had made their way over the sky, covering the seas in a dim shadow and blocking off the sun's relentless late-summer heat. Viren could almost feel the weight in his pocket growing as the elf girl's magic drained.

The water was still, alarmingly so, and the winds were all but inexistante. It was as if they'd entered the doldrums of this sea, only there weren't any doldrums on this side of Xadia and the human kingdoms.

The cold presence of water droplets began falling from the sky, slowly covering the deck in thin, dark speckles of rain. Those on deck frantically began hurrying below deck, nor wanting to be covered in the cold cloudburst. It was stunningly silent, a simple beauty that could rarely be replicated.

They had to be nearing the Xadian border at this point, the currents assured that.

Then, he heard it.

The small, almost unnoticeable melody that drifted over the still waters. A song echoing through the air and urging him to throw his entire being into the sea, where it was safe,  _warm_ , away from the troubles of land.

There was no distinct tune or tempo, yet it formed the most lovely song Viren had ever known. He closed his eyes, disturbed at the comforting thoughts that drifted into his mind.

The ocean was so beautiful, so peaceful. An endless void of nothingness, drifting constantly downwards, glad to engulf you in its embrace. Mile after mile of nothingness, clear white sand beneath you, soft enough to lay down and sleep in for centuries without a care.

Viren found himself suddenly very tired, his hand drifting up to rest on his temple.

It was all an illusion, it was fake. He knew the dangers of experienced sirens, it was the entire reason all of their fighting was done on land, sirens were far too dangerous to risk encountering.

He opened his eyes, forcing himself back to reality. He looked up, his eyes hardening as he turned to overlook the water.

Without warning, a pale hand appeared, pulling the image of a clear, flawless face staring at him from one of the limber holes. He froze.

Her appearance seemed to shift between two forms, a pretty girl with long white hair and tanned skin, and a pale woman with long dark hair, and a simple beauty mark underneath her eye.

That's what this spell was, then. Meant to confuse him and make him let his guard down. He took in a deep breath, and the faint sound of a similar voice, a familiar scream, a face disappearing beneath the waves.

He closed his eyes, mumbled a spell underneath his breath, and when he looked up again, the siren at the side of his ship was simply that, a siren. She was no longer a pale ghost of someone he'd managed to kill, but the horrible beauty of someone who's magic was meant to enchant and kill  _him_.

Viren frowned as she stared at him with what appeared to be feigned innocence, her eyes wide and curious as she once again opened her mouth and let out that simple tune that drifted through the air.

The staff in his hand suddenly felt hot as Viren responded to the mermaid's song by chanting a dark magic spell. The siren's eyes widened, and she immediately let go of the ships's side, falling into the still waters below with a sickening  _splash_.

" _Sirens!_ " Viren then called, crossing the deck and slamming the door to below deck open, "Alert the king, sirens have attacked the ship."

The crew members began rushing around in a panic, and viren's gaze drifted to the little elf, who watched him with wide, questioning eyes.

He couldn't wait until he got to snuff out the light that filled her voice with magic.  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


When Viren first entered the quarters below deck, the air in the room seemed to still, its warmth leaving and being replaced with a cold chill that clutched at every bit of her being.

Then, she heard thunder, and a distinct, familiar voice. Her heart seemed to stop.

She carefully made her way out onto deck, ignoring Ezran's questioning calls from behind her. The rain had picked up, and now Rayla knew why.

The song one of her mentors was singing was a storm spell. A song meant to summon heavy rains, rough waters, and vengeful seas.

It was fine under the surface, of course. But above water...

The ship suddenly lurched to the side, causing spikes of pain to shoot through her legs and for her to stumble down to the wooden floor. Her body suddenly felt extremely heavy, her legs like lead as she attempted to pull herself up. It was then that she was aware of the voices joining the one in a chorus.

_No._

The rain felt like icy fire against her skin

She managed to stumble and crawl her way to the side of the ship, bracing herself against the railing as she peered out over the rough waves.

Her vision blurred, and she could hear the sharp shouts from crew members and servants behind her. This couldn't be happening.

This couldn't be real.

Rayla tried to call out, to get them to stop, before she was once again painfully aware that she had no voice. She couldn't tell anyone anything.

Her heart began to ache as reality came crashing down around her.

Lightning struck overhead, and the smell of smoke reached her nose as the orange pattern of flames reflected off of the wet wood.

A blast of pain shot through her body.

She crumpled to her knees, gasping as her face hit the deck, her body curling in on itself, as her vision blurred and her skin grew dry and cracked despite the water pounding relentlessly against it.

She bit her lip to attempt to stop her silent screams, and was met with the taste of blood.

Rayla suddenly felt as if her body was void of nothingness, and she found it hard to breath. Something crashed down beside her, and splinters of wood hit her face in sharp bits of pain.

Before she could even process what was happening, the ship rocked with the presence of yet another wave, and Rayla felt her body roll and slide, scrapping against the hard deck and off the side of the ship, where the sound of screams seemed all too loud, too real, before being replaced with silence as her body hit the water, and she began sinking to the bottom of the deep blue sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone has any chapter ideas, or almost-kiss scenes you can think of, please comment below!! I'd love to write your ideas and add them in as previous chapters ( with credit, of course <3 )


	21. Luminescent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 The sea looked quite green, and large icebergs were floating about, each like a pearl, she said, but larger and loftier than the churches built by men. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol this is the second part to last chapter, enjoy!!

**Rayla was surrounded by darkness.**

Everything hurt, and the water around her wasn't comforting or warm. It lacked any bit of familiarity it might've had at some point. Her chest felt as if it were about to burst, and she was reminded then that she wasn't made to hold her breath. There was never any need to avoid breathing in water. Her lungs had little to no capacity.

The thought entered her mind then that this is must be what it felt like to die.

She felt herself sinking, and was aware of how her dress soaked up the water around her and made every movement sluggish, and Rayla knew that the potion to control her human appearance was all but gone, she no longer felt the vial in her pocket. She shut her eyes, blocking out the bright, orange light that bit against her blurred vision. The sound of screams faded away slowly, and a simple pain at the corner of her eyes informed her that she was, in fact, crying.

She supposed that this wasn't such a bad way to leave the world, however ironic it might be.

Rayla had grown used to the thought of death.

Her lungs involuntarily contacted, forcing small bits of air out and reminding Rayla of the fact that she had no idea how to swim in this form.

She was going to die.

Oh stars she was going to die.

There was a sudden splash from far above her, and she managed to make out the distant form of a human, desperately swimming downwards, a hand reaching out to her. The last thing she could remember was desperately reaching upwards, her vision fading into a clear, faded white.

Everything was quiet.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Viren cursed as he watched the idiot step-prince dive into the rough water after the elf.

The ship was burning, life boats were being quickly sent off, and as soon as the main mast had fallen the sirens had disappeared.

And then the elf girl had fallen in. It would've made his life so much easier if she'd just had drowned and been gone, but no, the step-prince just  _had_  to be heroic and dive in after her.

No matter, he could will do quite useful things with every part of a ocean elf's body. Her lungs and gills could be used to craft potions to breath in water, her scales could be used in at least five hundred different spells, and her hair was a common ingredient in pretty much any ocean-related dark magic.

When Callum didn't rise to the surface in the next minute, he began to grow worried.

The mage sighed, it would appear he wouldn't be obtaining his ingredients after all.

There was a shout behind him, before a large crash, followed by the wood below his feet splintering and shooting up. The boat rocked, knocking the dark mage over the railing and into the water.

When he surfaced a small life boat had come to retrieve him from where he was in the water, Harrow calling to the mage, and everything came crashing down around him.

He could hear a muffled song, concealed by the endless waves of restless waters. Viren ignored the hand that reached out to help him into the boat and dove back under the water.

No, oh god no, this couldn't be happening.

He forced his eyes open, ignoring the salty sting and the burn of his lungs.

A glowing light was slowly falling through the water, fading into nothingness as Viren desperately swam downwards, only to be pulled up and away by the riptide.

He surfaced, a flaming rage filling his being. Looking out over the water, he could see two small figures emerging from the sea foam.

It was Callum and the elf girl, who's body was slowly but surely growing to be covered in several small, luminescent scales.

He gripped the side of the boat, dragging himself into it and going to the far side. Her voice may be gone, but he would still have a use for the elf.

"It's her fault—" he managed to spit out, rising to stand in the boat despite Harrow's protests as the canoe rocked dangerously, "You— you elf!"

Callum helped Ezran pull the now unconscious girl into their life boat, both of them looking at the girl with a newfound shock at her quickly changing appearance.

The spell was fading, and Viren found no room in his heart to care.

He watched as Rayla's hair faded to a bright white, her skin becoming covered in dry, cracking blue scales that reflected the dim light in a million ways. Her hands faded from having five fingers each to only four, and if he looked closely he could see the vague outline of horns protruding from her head.

"Viren, what is happening?" Harrow asked, placing a hand on the shoulder of the dark mage, who simply glared at the stupid, naive elf in front of them.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, "This  _elf_  summoned her people here to  _kill_  us, just like they did all those years ago!"

Callum's eyes widened, and Viren knew that Rayla was never going to get her kiss.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Upon arriving back at shore, Viren ordered Soren to take the elf down to the dungeon, and Soren obliged.

When he lifted the unconscious elf, he was surprised at how incredibly  _light_  she was, and how her skin felt so dry at his touch. He didn't question what his father told him though, this was an elf, a killer, an enchantress meant to tempt and sway humans to do their bidding.

He studied her face as her brought her down the long stairwell. He hated this part of the castle, and tended to avoid it as much as possible. After all, there wasn't much need to be in the creepy abandoned dungeon where prisoners were never even kept there.

Rayla looked different, yet the same. If you took away the pointed ears, white hair, horns, and scales that were slowly spreading across her body, she looked just like the Rayla he'd seen around the palace for the past summer.

_No, Soren, stop being distracted._

He bit his lip, reaching the foot of the stairs and heading down the hallway that led to the cells. He pulled the metal door of one with nicer and less eroded walls open and set her on the stone floor. He could hear the ocean from the small window that ran along the ceiling of the cell. Soren briefly wondered if she would be able to escape from it, but quickly dismissed the thought.

In her state he wondered if she would even live to see the next sunrise.

He left the dungeon as quickly as possible.

Whatever happened to the elf wasn't his business, his father had to have a good reason for keeping her.

He just needed to trust him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo, any ideas on how this will play out? :)


	22. Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「Breathe. Breathe. Callum, you need to breathe, you just need to breathe sweetie. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who made a playlist of songs I listened to religiously while writing this book :D  
> Here's the link- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9O4ncZevU3iI2ac5Uh5J-DvLeX_tOiIx

**The trip had started normally.**

It wasn't as if they hadn't travelled this route before, and it wasn't as if anything had been out of the ordinary in the days leading up to the incident.

Then, shortly after departure, the weather seemed to shift.

The skies had been a crystal-like blue that matched the Xadian side of the seas, and no clouds were visible for miles in every direction. But then, out of nowhere, clouds began to shift in, a dark wall slowly approaching them from the human side.

The solution was simple. Viren suggested that they simply crossed over to the Xadian side, working their way around the storm.

Sarai protested, Harrow agreed.

When the winds began picking up, and the sun began setting, Sarai took Callum's hand, picked up Ezran, and brought them below deck. Ezran was only a toddler at the time, and Callum was only six.

The room she'd brought them into was decorated with several old, antique items. Several had been scavenged from shipwrecks, and taken to decorate the lower decks of the ship with a more homely feel. They were royalty, after all, they could afford it.

Thunder crashed outside, and Callum started crying.

Sarai hushed the child, setting the sleeping Ezran on a nearby couch and pulling her elder son into a warm embrace.

They made themselves comfortable on the large couch, Sarai wrapping them up in a soft quilt.

She then decided to tell him a story.

A legend, of sorts.

A story that was filled with magic, of a time before war, when everyone was at peace.

She told him a story, as well as a secret.

"Have you ever heard the tale of the little mermaid?" Sarai asked.

"No, what's it about?"

"Well," Sarai began, her arm wrapping around his shoulders and pulling him closer, "it's about a time long ago, before Katolis existed."

"Why didn't Katolis exist?"

"Because Xadia was one land," she said, "and humans and elves lived together. They didn't hate each other or fight with each other, they simply _were_. But there was one kind of elf that was different from the rest," Sarai explained, "these were the ocean elves."

"How were they different from the others?"

"Unlike the other elves and humans, they were connected to the ocean. Instead of legs, they all have fins. They are unable to join those on land, or dance or run or play with those without fins. They can't even draw because all of the paper would become soggy!"

"That's horrible!"

"Once, there was an ocean elf who watched those on land with fascination. Out of all elves, it was said that those of the sea were the most beautiful, and had voices that could enchant any living thing. This was due to the ocean's magic, a kind rimmed with mystery."

"But aren't the oceans dangerous? We can't go to Xadia because of them."

"It wasn't always like that. Once, during a storm, this little mermaid discovered a ship that had been struck by lightning, and a human that had fallen into the sea. He had hit his head and fallen unconscious, and the riptide was pulling him to the bottom of the sea. Fearing for the boy's life, she dragged him to the surface, and traveled several miles to the nearest shore in order to save him. Fearing the land above, she fled back to the sea before he could awaken and see her. She waited off by the rocks to see that he was safe, and when someone had found him she returned to the sea."

"What happened then?"

"Well, she realized that she had fallen in love with the human, and so decided to seek out a human mage, who offered her a deal. She traded her voice for a pair of legs, so that she could walk amongst the humans and land elves like anyone else."

"And so she found the boy and they lived happily ever after, right?" Callum asked, knowing the usual ending to every story.

"Not quite. You're used to the fairy tales with happy endings, but not all stories end that way. Not all people live to tell the sad ones."

"So how does this story end?"

"The mermaid traveled throughout the land, searching for the boy she saved. When she found him, he didn't know who she was. They grew close, and the boy became fond of the girl, but he had fallen in love with another. The human girl who had found him on the beach was quite beautiful, and they eventually got married. The mermaid had no way of telling the prince the truth, as she had no voice. Consumed with grief, she found herself longing to return to the sea, and so she did just that. The morning after the wedding, the ocean elf threw herself into the sea, only to find that she was unable to breath or swim as she used to. The little mermaid drowned in the place she once knew as her home, and faded into sea foam the same way all those connected to the ocean do after they die."

"And the boy?"

"He never knew the true identity of the girl. She simply disappeared one day and never returned."

There was another crash of lightning from outside, and in that moment the door flew open. Ezran awoke, his small cries echoing throughout the room.

"Viren, what is going on?"

"Sirens. Collect any valuables and return to the deck," the dark mage said, picking up Ezran and nudging Callum towards the door, "we're abandoning ship."

"This is why I said we shouldn't travel this close to the border!"

Viren ignored her, handing Ezran to Callum and forcing them out of the room.

"We wouldn't have had this problem if you'd insisted on withdrawing defenses at sea!"

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not a fan of people dying pointless deaths. Sirens use songs to enchant our armies, and I'm not going to let my sister be the only sane person trying to protect hundreds of useless soldiers—"

"Whatever, just make your way to the top deck."  
  
  


**•  •  •**  
  
  


"I'll see you on the other side."

Those had been Sarai's last words to Harrow, only mere moments ago. How much time had passed since then, she had no way of knowing.

She could still smell the thick scent of blood, and the shaft of her spear was covered in the blood of a siren. Sarai couldn't get the image of the merman's shocked face from her mind, or the scream that echoed from a nearby mermaid.

There had been a hole broken into the ship's hull after that, and Viren had, in a panicked state, told her that several important documents were still below deck. If the elves got a hold of them, there would be dire consequences.

What she wasn't expecting as she ran below deck, was for the door to outside suddenly swinging shut and the sound of large amounts of wood collapsing on top of it.

She didn't even want to count the number of splinters that covered her palms.

"No, _no_ , _please no_..."

Water was quickly filling into the chamber, her shoes currently soaked through and everything around her shifting due to the slowly rising water.

There was a splash nearby, and Sarai frantically shot her spear towards the movement. The sickening crunch of skin and bones confirmed her suspicions.

Blood slowly started seeping and spreading through the water around her spear.

The siren was beautiful, and she had just killed it without a second thought. She really was like every other human, after all.

She just hoped Callum and Ezran wouldn't turn out the same way.

Sarai let out a sob, letting herself fall to her knees and her back to hit the wood of the door that was her only escape. The door that stubbornly refused to open despite her greatest efforts. She glanced over to the sole window, a single crack slowly spreading throughout the thin glass. Water was seeping in through it, and at any given second she knew it would shatter and allow water to rush into the room.

The boat suddenly jolted, causing the wood in the lower are to splinter and reveal sand and spewing water underneath.

Sarai heaved in breath after breath, her sobs catching in her throat as she tried to think of something, anything that she could do.

_Breathe..._

_Please, just breathe Sarai..._

There really wasn't any way out.

She was going to die.

She was going to drown.

_She was going to die._

The water rose slowly, at an aching pace. The crack on the sole window grew even wider. Every breath she took seemed to grow quicker and shallower. Her face was wet with a mix of tears and sea salt.

The window broke.

Water began plunging into the boat, rising up and over her body and up over her head as she desperately tried taking in any last bit of air she could.

_Breathe._

It was silent underwater. A strange isolation of nothingness that went on for miles and miles. Everything was blurred, as if your vision was suddenly stolen and replaced with a distorted view of the world.

Everything was blue.

Her chest hurt.

Her eyes stung.

One breath, and everything would be over. One breath, and her suffering would end.

_Just breathe._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What, you really expected me to watch that scene with Callum drowning (even if it was a dream) and Sarai telling him to breathe and not put a reference in this book?
> 
> Also!! I did youtube!!  
> If you want to see me being a cringy dork trying to bake jelly tarts while in a Sarai cosplay here you go-  
> https://youtu.be/fdQLu9yNJio


	23. A Final Bargain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish's tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam.」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i love playing with people's feelings

**Viren let the passageway entrance slam shut behind him as he made his way down the hidden staircase.** A small knife was tucked in his pocket, and the candle he held provided little to no light in the dim passage.

When he returned to the hidden cell, he was honestly quite surprised to see that the elder ocean elf was still alive. His skin was cracked and bleeding in every possible place, and the scales had taken to falling off and shedding as the skin connecting them to his body died. It was a grotesque sight, but at the moment it didn't really matter to Viren.

He was done playing games.

The elf didn't react as he approached, and so Viren began the spell.

It was easier to steal his voice, perhaps because he was already too weak to do anything other than glare at the dark mage, and the voice only managed a simple hum before being the clawed hand clasped it into silence.

If he'd lost everything he'd worked for with the younger elf, at least he could make use of this siren.

Viren removed the small knife from his pocket, unsheathing it and letting the firelight reflect off of the runes he'd managed to carefully carve only moments before.

If he could manage to create a bargain with the elf, one last deal, then everything would be fine.

He may have lost her voice, but what is a single voice compared to an endless supply of ocean elves?

If he managed to convince the elf to kill the step-prince, that would be enough to get Harrow to agree risking lives and attacking by sea once more. Then, they'd be able to once again gain access to the magic the sea possessed.

Viren took out a small pouch of coin's from his pocket, and began to chant.

•  •  •

When Rayla awoke, she was surprised to find that she was alive. Then she realized where she was.

Every bit of her body hurt, and when she pushed herself up and off of the stone floor she found that a wave of intense nausea hit her. She heaved once into the corner before releasing mouthful after mouthful of salt water and blood from inside her system. Her throat burnt with the metallic taste of blood and salt.

Everything went wrong in a single instant. That last thing she remembered was her sinking into the ocean, accepting the fact that she was going to die in the very place that had once been her home.

Looking at her hand, she saw it was covered in the pattern of several blue scales and dried bits of blood.

She felt lightheaded.

Rayla pulled herself away from the mess she'd left on the floor, her back hitting the far wall and the sound of the ocean mockingly crashing behind her. Her stomach hurt. A lot.

It felt like she hadn't eaten anything in days, like someone had decided to skin her insides before forcing her to drink a gallon of acid.

She was suddenly really craving a sashimi roll, one that thy sold in the bakery near her school. They always served it with fresh seaweed and salmon that had been caught in the morning.

She took in a deep breath, wincing as the dry air scraped against the insides of her lungs. She coughed once, cringing at the sight of blood that dripped onto her hand. She didn't want to think about how she ended up there.

It was pretty clear what had happened.

Someone probably jumped in after her, and when they rose to the surface they realized that her appearance was shifting into that of an elf. They threw her into the dungeon, and now Viren—

Oh sea-stars, he was going to use her for dark magic now, wasn't he?

She closed her eyes, leaning against the cold stone of the cell. The floor beneath her was a sharp texture of stray bits of sand and salt that had undoubtably collected immensely over the years.

Perhaps, if she could go back, she'd listen to Runaan for once. She wouldn't have traveled to the human side so often, she wouldn't have fallen for a human, and she wouldn't have been captured by Viren.

But, then again, if she'd never have saved Callum from drowning.

The thought of him being dead and her life the same, normal, boring routine frightened her more than her current situation.

She heard the click of a lock, and tiredly forced herself to look up.

Viren stood there, observing her with cold, calculating eyes.

"I come offering a bargain," he began, "the rest of those in the castle know about what you really are, and think you were simply infiltrating to gather information. But I have a way to send you back to the ocean, and leave this whole mess behind you."

Viren knelt down, pulling a dagger out of his pocket. He handed it to Rayla, who timidly reached out an gripped the hilt.

"By next sunrise, you will have a choice. If you kill prince Callum, and spill his blood on your legs and feet and into the water, you will once again grow a tail and regain your ability to return to your home. But if you wait until past sunrise, the spell on the dagger will fade, and you will be stuck in this form until either Callum kisses you, or he kisses someone else and you die."

Rayla studied the blade that he had handed to her, looking at the carefully carved runes and the faint sheen of a glimmery residue of magic.

"I will leave the choice to you."

Viren left the cell, closing the cage and conveniently forgetting to lock the door.

The ocean elf watched as the dark mage locked her cell once more, and made his way down the long dungeon's hallway.

He disappeared from her sight, leaving Rayla to make the decision that would determine her fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this problem where I'm writing a part, end up being like halfway done, and then lose patience and post it just so I can read ppls comments. Oops.


	24. Last Sunset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 The knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid, then she flung it far away from her into the waves. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heck. I just realized this book has over 2000 views and 100 kudos. Yeet.

 

**Callum's head hurt.**

He couldn't get rid of the aching familiarity of Rayla's new appearance.

Claudia had hugged him, feeding him comforting words of reason.

"It's okay, Callum, she'd fooled everyone."

Then why was it that he didn't feel fooled. It was as if he'd known the whole time without realizing it. He'd seen the way she'd been fascinated with ever small detail, every insignificant object.

Claudia was amazing through it all, but when Callum told her he wanted to be alone, she simply kissed his cheek and left him, complying with his wishes.

He finally gave in that evening, right before sunset. The prince snuck down to the dungeon area, his steps light and calculated as the floor turned to a mix of sand and cold stone.

When he found the cell Rayla was located in, he found it hard to look at her.

She was curled in the far corner, the floor around her covered in crumbling scales and bits of dried, crusting blood. Her skin had taken on a grayish-blue tint, a ghostly paleness that made Callum believe she could crumble and fade away with the slightest touch. They hadn't thought to change her clothing or clean her up after the storm, and the clothing that cling to her thin frame was the same, white sundress she'd been wearing on their voyage, stained and muddied with dirt and sea salt.

"Rayla..."

He moved forward, his foot catching on the corner of the discarded key and sending it skidding across the floor.

Rayla didn't move.

Callum crouched down, picking up the small key.

"Hey, Rayla, are you okay?"

The elf shifted, her silvery hair shifting and falling over her face. She slowly opened her eyes, glancing in Callum's general direction. Her bright coral eyes seemed to look straight past him, shifting in and out of focus.

His heart hurt to see her like this. He kept telling himself that she was an _elf_ , a creature who existed in a different world from him, that she was a dangerous creature built entirely to seduce and enchant people like him. Yet she looked so helpless, so _innocent_ , so painfully _beautiful_ , even in her state of decay.

He clutched the small key until it bit into his palm painfully. In the next second, he made his decision. Callum carefully slipped the key into its lock, hearing the metal shift and click and pulled the rusted bars open. Callum let go of any amount of doubt in his mind.

Elf or not, Rayla was still Rayla.

She was still Rayla.

Callum knelt down next to her frail figure, sucking in a choked gasp as he saw the damage on her body closely and vividly. Her legs were lined with cracked skin and paling scales, color fading from her skin and every bit of her being.

Her feet were the worst part.

The soles were a bloody mess, the skin shredded, cracked, and mutilated beyond recognition. The tips of her toes had begun fading into what appeared to be a fish's tail, the ends jagged and split, crumbling away like the sand that covered the cell's floor.

"Rayla? Can you hear me?"

Her lips moved, and she weakly pushed her body from the wall, shifting her weight onto her knees in a desperate attempt to straighten her broken posture.

A started hand flew up to her throat, as if she was surprised that she was unable to speak.

"Hey, come on, we have to go and get you out of here," Callum spoke, hooking one of his arms under Rayla's shoulder.

At first he thought Rayla was standing with him, but then he realized that she was hanging limply from his side. The area on the floor around her was covered in a layer of extra sand and a crystal-like blue salt.

"Come on, Rayla, please, we just have to get you back to the water, right? Then you'll be fine?"

Rayla heaved in a long, slow breath, before carefully taking a step forward. She tensed, and Callum double-checked to make sure her arm was secure around his shoulders as he led her out of the cell, slowly supporting her as they made their way down the halls. They stopped at an area before one of the main hallways.

"Do you think you can make it out from here? I can lead the guards and people away from this area?"

Rayla nodded, using the wall to support herself as Callum brought his arm away.  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


Rayla could do nothing but watch as Callum turned the corner and disappeared from her sight. The feeling of dread slowly seeped into her body, forming a painful lump at the pit of her stomach.

Pushing herself weakly from the wall, she walked to the corner, peeking around the corner to watch Callum's retreating back.

Claudia appeared then, fretfully fussing over Callum. She briefly wondered if he had left the other humans in order to free her, the thought gave her a small amount of hope, maybe all was not lost, maybe she could still get her kiss—

Claudia wrapped her arms around Callum in a tight embrace, pulling away slightly only to place a simple kiss on the boy's lips.

Callum didn't pull away.

And Rayla's world seemed to shatter before her.

Her throat clenched shut, and she found that she could no longer remember how to use her lungs. Before she could risk either of them seeing her watching, she pulled her frail body around the corner, letting herself slide to the floor and lean against the wall in an attempt to steady her involuntary fall.

No.

_No._

It couldn't be over, not that simply, _it couldn't._

Rayla didn't even notice how the pain seemed to dull, how her appearance then froze, and instead of her skin drying and cracking apart it simply grew soft, painfully so. It was as if every cell in her body had grown numb, unable to feel any bit of the agony it was going through.

She didn't notice how, slowly, pearl after pearl fell to the floor around her.

She simply pushed herself to her feet, and ran.

The knife that Viren had given her seemed to burn through her dress and into her skin from her pocket, teasing her, mocking her. There was an easy escape, she didn't have to die.

She could easily live.

She could easily return home, forget her time of pain and suffering, and live the rest of her life under the sea, where she was always meant to be.

Where she never should've left.

So she ran.

She didn't care of the splitting pain that began flaring in her feet at each step, didn't care of the way her lungs burned for air she was conveniently forgetting to give them, and she didn't care of the thoughts relentlessly rushing through her mind.

She was going to die, and it was no one's fault but her own.

When her feet finally brought her back to the staircase leading to the sea, she didn't hesitate as she raced down the stairs, her legs giving out underneath her as her body finally reached its limit. She fell, letting out a silent scream as she crashed into the sand below, unable to do anything but lay there in agony as every bit of pain became all too obvious once again.

She wanted to cry out, she wanted to scream, and so she did; but all that escaped her lips was a simple silence, a rush of muted air, and nothing more.

Her hands clawed at the sand, digging up pearl after pearl as they fell from her eyes. The sunset sent out a chilling orange light over the water and small beach.

When the sun disappeared from sight, and stars began filling the sky, she realized that the moon was only half full, not able to raise the tide.

The half moon lies.

When the moon was half full, that was when you were meant to tell secrets, to tell lies and hide them away, for it was the time when the ocean didn't send them to the land, and would instead keep them hidden for an eternity.

She hated how a silly mermaid superstition was the first thing to come to her mind.

But she stood, and walked carefully to the edge of the water, and began signing, using the few words she'd managed to learn, and filling the rest out with simple letters.

_Sleep beneath_   
_the foam o' the waves,_   
_on reefs of sleep,_   
_dreaming in dew mist._   
_Thy seabed,_   
_The seals o'er head..._

She didn't know why she was signing the lyrics to an old lullaby, but at that moment she didn't really care.

She just needed to sing, once more, no matter in what way she did so.

Rayla fell to her knees, pulling out the dagger Viren had given to her. It was beautiful knife, with silvery gold along the blade and a glimmering hilt.

All she needed to do was kill Callum, spill his blood onto her legs, and return to the sea.

It was so simple.

She just needed to kill him.

Rayla pulled herself to her feet, took in a deep breath, and threw the blade out into the sea foam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, y'all guys got ur kiss!!
> 
> Wait, what do you mean you wanted Rayla and Callum to kiss :0


	25. Sea Foam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and her body dissolved into foam. 」

 

 **That night,** Callum's mind kept returning to Rayla, and how broken and beaten she'd looked as he took her from her cage and led her to a place where she could escape the castle. It was worrying how much she seemed to fade away right before his own eyes.

Claudia had appeared, fretting over how he'd suddenly disappeared.

They'd kissed, almost like they'd been doing it for years, and nothing had felt _wrong_ about it. It was normal, safe, what he'd always wanted.

Yet why, then, was his love for Claudia seeming to slowly ebb away, just like the tide.

When he finally managed to force himself asleep, he saw a girl in his dreams.

And then he heard a voice.

He was surrounded on all sides by water, as far as the eye could see. Bits of debris drifted through the currents, the riptide pulling him downwards. Deeper and deeper and deeper.

Callum wasn't scared, though, and he didn't know why.

Then, a figure appeared before him. White hair spread out around her in a small halo, skin clear and flawless, elven markings evident on her face. Bright, coral eyes cut through the darkness, and the next thing her knew, he was being lifted onto the sand, a gentle hand pushing his hair off of his brow and letting the sunlight dry the water on his face.

Then, she sang.

Her voice was soft, hesitant, and enchanting. Creating a lull of the sea, pulling him into a safe, warm lullaby that brought back memories of home, of simpler times.

He'd opened his eyes only briefly, peering up at the girl — the _elf_ , as he now realized — whom had saved him.

Callum woke with a start, adrenaline pulsing through his system as he frantically rolled out of bed, his eyes looking out the window gazing over the ocean. There was a figure standing there in the sand, right on the edge of the retreating waves.

Rayla.

Callum burst out of his room, not bothering to quiet his footsteps. He didn't care, he needed to see her, he needed to talk to her — no matter how that would be. He needed to confirm his suspicions, needed to know for certain.

 _Rayla_.

He was an idiot, why hadn't he noticed before?

Why hadn't he seen what was right in front of him.

_Rayla._

It was _Rayla._

_It had always been Rayla._

He ran through the castle's empty halls, making his way to the staircase that led to the sea. His feet hit the steps painfully, the breaking marble and exposed sandstone cutting into the soles of his bare feet. He didn't care though, none of that mattered. His pain was nothing.

" _Rayla!_ " his scream cut through the silent night air as his feet touched the sand, the air around him thick and humid. It felt suffocating.

She turned, and Callum slowed to a stop, his breath catching in his throat.

She looked like a ghost.

Bits of light began twinkling over the edge of the ocean's horizon, painting the sky with faint shades of orange. It stained the sea red.

Yet Rayla was blue. Her image seemed to flicker and fade in and out of focus under the soft light, and Callum realized it was due to the color of the scales that covered every bit of exposed skin.

Callum took a step forward, hesitating, not wanting to take his eyes off of her in fear of her fading, yet too afraid to draw any closer in fear of a single touch sending her crumbling away.

"It was you, wasn't it?"

Rayla simply stared at him.

Callum took several, fleeting steps forward, a hand reaching out and taking Rayla's into his own. The scales felt like sandpaper under his skin, and he was worried for a second that his touch would force them to break and fall.

She looked at him with those eyes.

Those stupid, _stupid_ eyes that seemed to hold the entire ocean.

Slowly, hesitating, Rayla nodded.

"You were the one. You were always the one— you were the one who saved me."

Once again, she nodded.

"Rayla, why didn't you tell me? You could've written it down, or signed a message or—"

The look in her eyes told him everything. Of course she didn't bring the subject up. If she had, it would've become obvious what exactly she was.

And he hated that he knew exactly how he would've reacted.  
  
  


**• • •**   
  
  


Rayla had grown used to the thought of death. The thought that, after the sun rose, she'd fall into the sea and crumble away into nothing but the foam on its surface.

Like the hidden sad story of the ocean, she'd be forgotten. Nothing but a distant memory, hidden from view to anyone daring to look in the first place.

Yet, when Callum looked at her, really _looked_ at her, and asked her if she had been the girl, the one who'd saved him, for a split second it seemed like everything was worth it.

Her body was tired, aching in every possible place, and she knew that the pain would only worsen.

She was already dead.

She had no other choice.

She never really did in the first place.

Callum's hand was warm, and it occurred to her then how dreadfully cold everything else felt, how the light slowly peeking over the ocean's horizon only brought more ice into her heart, and split into her skin with an aching sensation of freezing to death.

No.

The sun was rising.

_No._

She would never get to grow old, never get to see Tinker again, never get to apologize to Runaan for all of the times she'd disobeyed him. She would never get to explore the reaches of the world above.

Yet, staring at Callum, who stood before her with nothing but love in his eyes, she found herself longing to say only one thing.

 _I love you,_ her lips mouthed the words unconsciously, and the ghost of a whisper escaped with them. A silent promise, a silent vow that would stretch across every age, every universe, every war.

Until they would undoubtably meet again.

Callum didn't even hesitate when he whispered it back.

"I love you."

Rayla then closed the distance between them, placing her lips on his just as the sun rose up over the sea, its bright rays shooting spikes of pain through every inch of her body. Her skin seemed to burn wherever the light met its dry surface.

It wasn't magical, it wasn't a spell-breaking true love's kiss. It was already too late for that, too late to reverse what already happened.

What's done cannot be undone.

Those few, fleeting seconds felt like an eternity, and Rayla found that she didn't want it ever to end. If time were to freeze in that very moment, all would be well.

But time was cruel.

She found it hard to breath, that once again her body began deteriorating.

It hurt.

Rayla was the one to pull away, looking up at Callum, before signing the one thing she could think to say.

 _I'm sorry,_ she mouthed, along with the motion.

She walked towards to sea, feeling her hand drop from Callum's as he reached out to her retreating form.

Rayla looked back one last time, the ocean waves stinging her feet in the same way lava would claw at a piece of driftwood. She had known the price for her time one land, now she simply had to pay it.

Rayla turned to the ocean, and walked into the waves. The water seemed to rise up in the form of waves, rising over her head and pulling her out, away from the land. For a moment, the pain was blinding. It was that of every cell in her body being torn apart and destroyed.

Then, there was nothing.

And so, the little ocean elf dissolved into the foam of the sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, y'all got ur Rayllum kiss ;)


	26. Epilogue- In Another Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 「 and so,  
> we meet again. 」

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall really didn't think that was it, did you? :)

**Rayla didn't know why she hated the water.**

She just did.

One of her earliest memories took place by the sea. She remembered holding runaan's hand as he led her across the sand, down to the ruined docks and explaining what had once been there. This was where the ocean elves used to live. This was where they'd meet those who lived on land, and would discuss trade agreements and shipments of supplies that were meant to be brought to their cities. Boats would be sent out, and the merfolk would meet them at the surface and collect their goods.

It had once been full of life, several years ago.

Then, one day, they'd disappeared.

There had been no warning, simply a single elf rising to the surface at their meeting points and telling the land elves that their kind had returned to the sea. That the surface was no longer safe from the threat of humans.

That was why they never saw any ocean elves fighting at the breach, they couldn't leave the water in the first place. It was also why the oceans were deserted. Why they were a deep, murky color, and in a constant freezing state. The magic that once filled the waters near the land above was gone.

When Runaan had told her this, she started crying. She didn't know why, she just simply found that she couldn't stand the sight of lifeless ocean waters, that the thought of going anywhere near them was terrifying.

When she saw the ocean, the thought of death filled her mind.

This was a ridiculous thought, she knew. After all, the moon and the sea were connected, they had no closer relatives in terms of magic. The ocean was meant to entrance and allure, while the moon would disguise and create was simply wasn't there.

Whenever she saw the sea, she would hear screams, she would see flashes of bloodied scales and hear a distant voice that sounded eerily similar to her own.

She remembered, that night, after Runaan had told her about the ocean elves, and they were meant to be asleep in a small inn near the surf, she heard a voice.

It woke her up, and the aching sense of familiarity filled her being. She had traveled out to the beach, terrified of what she was doing, and looked out over the sea.

The water seemed to glow a soft blue, far out in the depths, and she found herself longing to swim out, to see what exactly it was. She needed to know, she needed to answer its call.

Then, when she stepped into the waters of high tide, the icy bite of cold filled her senses. Fear was suddenly very prominent, overpowering.

She turned and ran, ignoring the way her heart seemed to long for the sea, and returned to her bed beside Runaan.

Rayla never allowed herself near the water after that.  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


Callum didn't know why, but the sea seemed to call to him.

It filled him with a feeling of sadness, of a melancholy that he couldn't quite put into words.

He'd looked out over the still, silent waters, and would hear the echo of a voice, an image of bright, ocean eyes, and the sense of drowning.

They'd visited an old, summer lodge at one point during his childhood, though the trip there and back took much longer than needed, as they avoided traveling by sea for some reason. Apparently the last time the royal family had done so ended with tragedy.

The seaside castle was rarely used, and so it wasn't surprising that they only stayed there for a week before leaving and never returning. It was close to the border, and with the way things were progressing in the war, far too dangerous. They turned it into a place to house soldiers after their one visit.

The entire time they were present in the lodge, Callum found himself sinking further and further into a pit of sadness, with no real reason as to why.

There was something about the halls that was eerily familiar. Something about the beach that filled his heart with pain. An intense desire to flee and never return.

When they finally left, he made a small, silent promise to never return.

And he never did.  
  
  


**•  •  •**   
  
  


When Rayla snuck into the castle, she had one goal in mind. Kill the king, and kill the prince.

The human was familiar.

She didn't know why.

Looking at him, walking down the hallway, she felt the same way she did when she looked at the sea. There was an intense fear, yet a gentle pull. With him, there was a single difference.

Instead of screams, instead of flashes of death and blood filling her mind, all she could see was warmth. A gentle sunrise. The feeling of arms wrapped around her in a final embrace.

Then, he turned to face her.

And he spoke.

"You know you can't sneak up on me—"

And Rayla's world began to change.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, wow. I finished it. I ACTUALLY FINISHED A FULL CHAPTER-BOOK FANFICTION!!
> 
> lol i haven't done that since my cringy lunar chronicles high school au like,, four years ago.
> 
> Anyway, thank you to anyone who managed to read this far!! (which isn't that big of a feat considering it's only around 30,000 words) I've started seeing people talking about this book on places like tumblr and twitter which is like,, so strange for me?? lol, I'm going to go back through now and heavily edit like 99% of this book. So, come back in like a year to re-read it, hopefully it's better by then :D


End file.
